macdonald had to remove 5 trees at the start of the season. each remaining tree made 210 oranges for a total of 41,790 oranges.

Question

i just have to write an equation to figure out how many trees he had at the start. for example, the equation has to be something like "10t=123+4" or something like that so that you can use the equation to determine how many trees he had at the very beginning. "t" is the variable that represents the initial number of trees

Answer 1

 

Let t = initial number of trees

 

"remove 5 trees at the start of the season"  means

     (t    - 5)     remain

 

"each remaining tree made 210 oranges for a total of 41,790 oranges"    means

         ( t   - 5)           *        210                  = 41790

 

Now, you can solve for t:

        (t-5)(210) = 41790                     [just re-writing]

        210t - 1050 = 41790                    [distribute]

        210t = 42840                            [add 1050 to each side]

          t = 204                                  [divide each side by 210]

 

There were initially 204 trees.  After 5 were removed, the remaining 199 produced 210 oranges each for a total of 199*210 = 41790 oranges.