If 40% of a number is 56, what was the original number

The equation is like this:

40%x=56

40% is equal to 0.4, or 4/10, which is 2/5 so we have:

2/5*x=56.
We multiply both sides by 5:

2*x=280
We divide both sides by 2:

x=140, this is also the result.