Linear Equations in worded problems
Date: May 19, 2020
Subject: Mathematics
Topic: Algebra – Worded problems
Worded problems in algebra requires you to write an expression or equation by converting the words in the problem to a problem in math language.
The following terms will assist you in converting from words to numbers and symbols.
Increased by——means to add
Decreased by—–means to subtract
Less than —– subtract but pay attention to the order of the numbers
Times —— means to multiply
More than ——- means to add
Sum —— means to add
Difference —— means to subtract
A number ——– Any letter or symbol
Is ——– Equals
Product ——- means to multiply
Example: A number increased by 5 is 15. What is the number?
Let us call the number Y. Therefore we can write
Y + 5 = 15
Then we solve by subtracting 5 from both sides
Y + 5 – 5 = 15 – 5
Y = 10
Example: Six less than a number is 4, what is the number?
In this example if you wrote 6- X = 4 you would be wrong
We would write it as X – 6 = 4…..since 6 is less than we are subtracting 6.
X – 6 = 4
We solve now by adding 6 to both sides
X – 6 + 6 = 4 + 6
X = 10
Example: 5 times a number is 25, what is the number.
We can call the number B and would write the equation as:
5 x B = 25 or 5B = 25
To solve we divide by 5:
5B/5 = 25/ 5; therefore B = 5