in music class. 3 times as many students play the saxophone than clarinet. tota 16 students in music. how many more play saxophone than clarinet?

Question

Math question 

 

Answer 1

You can make a table for the educated guessing:

 

Let X= the unknown number of clarinet players

3X= Three times the clarinet players = people who play the saxophone 3*X

 

Try some numbers for clarinet players and saxophone that will sum (add amounts) to 16:

 

 

number of clarinet players      number of saxophone players      Total Number        

x                                             3x     3*X                                            16

3                                             3*3=9                                           3+9=12    too small

 

4                                             3*4=12                                         4+12=16   Yes, this one works.

 

 

They asked, "How many more play saxophone than clarinet?"  When you are comparing two things and use the word, "more," that means you need to subtract.  12-4=8.   Answer 8 more play saxophone than clarinet.

     

Answer 2

The easiest way to answer this question is to make a list. If I have 1 clarinet player then I have 3 saxophone players; 2, 6; 3, 9; 4, 12; 5, 15. 

 

So when I have 4 clarinet players I have 12 saxophone players and 4+12=16. So I have 12-4=8 more saxophone players than clarinet players.