Miguel and three of his friends went to the movies. They originally had a total of $40. Each boy had the same amount of money and spent $7.50 on a ticket. Write and solve an equation to find how much money each boy had left after buying his ticket?

Answer: each boy had $2.5 left after buying his ticket.

Step-by-step explanation:

Miguel and three of his friends went to the movies. They originally had a total of $40. If each boy had the same amount of money, it means that the amount that each boy (4 boys in total) has is 40/4 = $10

Let x represent the amount of money that each boy had left after buying his ticket. If each boy spent $7.50 on a ticket, then the equation becomes

x + 7.5 = 10

Subtracting 7.5 from the left hand side and the right hand side of the equation, it becomes

x = 10 - 7.5 = 2.5