5. Aisha had a roll of ribbon. She used \( 15 \% \) of the ribbon to decorate cards and had 17 feet of ribbon left. She then used \( 20 \% \) of the remaining ribbon to wrap gifts. a What was the original length of the roll of ribbon? b What was the remaining length of ribbon after Aisha used them to wrap gifts?

To unravel Aisha's ribbon mystery, let's first find the original length. Since she used \( 15\% \) and had \( 17 \) feet left, this means \( 85\% \) of the ribbon equals \( 17 \) feet. By setting up the equation: \( 0.85x = 17 \) (where \( x \) is the original length) gives us \( x = 20 \) feet. Now, for the second part, after using \( 15\% \), Aisha had \( 17 \) feet left. If she then used \( 20\% \) of that \( 17 \) feet to wrap gifts, that’s \( 0.2 \times 17 = 3.4 \) feet. So, the remaining length after wrapping is \( 17 - 3.4 = 13.6 \) feet.