Lily recieves 30 messages on her cell phone. of those messages,1 over 5 are picture messages and 7 over 8 of the remainder are text messages. how many text messages does she recieve?

So we are starting out with 30 messages.

If 1/5 of the messages Lily receives are picture messages, then take 1/5 x 30 to find out how many that is.

1/5 x 30 = 30/5 = 6. So Lily receives 6 picture messages. 

If 7/8 of the remaining messages are texts, then we need to find the number of remaining messages. If 6 are pictures and she receives 30 overall, then 30 - 6 = 24, the remaining number of messages. Since we know 7/8 of this number is the number of texts Lily received, let's do some more multiplication:

7/8 x 24 = (7 x 24)/8 = 168/8 = 21.

So Lily received 21 text messages, 6 picture messages, and 3 of something else!