Lily baked two dozen cookies. She took 3/8 of the cookies to neighbors, shared 12 cookies with her family, and kept the rest. What percent of the cookies did Lily keep for
herself?

answer: the answer is one of

step-by-step explanation:   we are given to write a proper fraction where the whole is divided into an even number of equal parts less than ten, and an odd number of those parts exist.

an even number less than 10 may be one of 2, 4, 6 or 8. so, the whole may be one of these four evens.

now, an odd number of these parts must exist, so the numerator must be an odd number, one of 1, 3, 5 or 7. it cannot be 9 because then the fraction will become improper.

thus, our fraction may be one of the following

x^2 + 81

we can factor this using difference of square binomials.

rewrite the equation:

x^2 - (-81)

factor:

(a^2 - b^2) = (√a^2 + √b^2)(√a^2 - √b^2)

(x^2 - (-81) = (x + √-81)(x - √-81)

we can remove the - from under the radical by multiplying it by i.

(x^2 - (-81) = (x + i√81)(x - i√81)

(x^2 - (-81) = (x + 9i)(x - 9i)

we can check our answer by using foil:

x^2 - 9ix + 9ix - 81i^2

x^2 - 81^2

i^2 = -1

x^2 + 81