[Question]Sid takes $48 with him on a shopping trip to the mall. He spent some of his money on computer accessories and another $8 on snacks. After these purchases, he only has $4 more than half of his original money left. How much did he spend on computer accessories?
[Answer]Half of Sid's original money is $48 / 2 = $24. Sid has only $24 + $4 = $28 left after his purchases. He had $28 + $8 = $36 before he spent $8 on snacks. So, Sid spent $48 - $36 = $12 on computer accessories. The answer is 12.
Q: Tim decides to run a campaign for governor. He gets the maximum $1200 donation from 500 people, and three times as many people donated half this sum of money to his campaign. These donations together accounted for 40% of the total money that Tim raised. How much total money did he raise?
A: He got 1200 * 500 = $600,000 from maxed donors. The smaller donors donated 1200 / 2 = $600. He had 500 * 3 = 1500 of these donors. So they donated 1500 * 600 = $900,000. So large donations where worth 900,000 + 600,000 = $1,500,000. So he raised 1,500,000 / .4 = $3750000. The answer is 3750000.
Question: Bernie has a collection of 18 unique postcards. He decided to sell half his collection for $15 per postcard. After he has successfully sold his postcards he decided to spend all the earned money to buy new postcards for $5 each. How many postcards does Bernie have after all his transactions?
Answer: Half of Bernie's collection means 18 * 0.5 = 9 postcards. So he was able to sell 9 postcards for 9 * 15 = $135. He decided to spend all of his money on new postcards for $5 each, so he was able to buy 135 / 5 = 27 new postcards. This means Bernie has 9 + 27 = 36 postcards after all. The answer is 36.
[Question]There are 4 alligators living on a golf course in Florida. If the number of alligators doubles every six months, how many alligators will there be at the end of a year?
[Answer]First figure out how many times the alligator population doubles in one year by dividing the number of months in a year by the number of months it takes the population to double: 12 months / 6 months = 2. The alligator population doubles twice. Now double the alligator population once: 4 alligators * 2 = 8 alligators. Now double it again: 8 alligators * 2 = 16 alligators. The answer is 16.
Q: There are twice as many cows as dogs at a petting farm. If there are currently 184 cows at the farm, and the farm owner decides to sell 1/4 of the cows and 3/4 of the dogs, how many animals are remaining on the farm?
A: If there are 184 cows, twice the number of dogs, then there are 184 / 2 = 92 dogs on the farm. When the farm owner decided to sell 1 / 4 of cows, he sold 1 / 4 * 184 = 46 cows. The total number of cows remaining on the farm is 184 - 46 = 138. If the farm owner also sold 3 / 4 of the dogs, he sold 3 / 4 * 92 = 69. The total number of dogs remaining on the farm is 92 - 69 = 23. The total number of animals remaining on the farm is 23 + 138 = 161. The answer is 161.
Question: James and Ali together own $250. If you know that James owns $40 more than Ali, then calculate the amount owned by James.
Answer:

Show your work and conclude with the exact phrasing "Therefore, the final answer is [answer]." where [answer] is just the final number or expression that solves the problem.
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Let X be the amount owned by James. The amount owned by Ali is X - $40. The total amount owned by both of them X + (X - $40) = $250. Combining like terms, we get X * 2 - $40 = $250. Adding $40 to both sides, we get X * 2 = $290. Dividing both sides by 2, we get X = $145. The answer is 145.