I take half of Jeremy's money and divide it into 7 equal piles. Six of these piles blow away in the wind, but from the seventh pile, I take 2 dollars and hand Jeremy the rest, which is 8 dollars. How much money, in dollars, did Jeremy begin with?

If x represents Jeremy's initial money

x

We take half of Jeremy's initial money

1/2*x

We divide half of Jeremy's money into 7 equal piles.

Then each pile is one-seventh of the half of Jeremy's money.

One pile has a value of

1/2*x * 1/7

= 1/14*x

The other six piles are irrelevant. We're left with one pile, of which the amount is given above

Taking away 2 dollars from one pile results in 8 dollars

1/14*x-2 = 8

Solve this equation for x

Add 2 to both sides

1/14*x = 10

Multiply both sides by 14

x = 140

Jeremy had $140 to begin with.