Samuel H. answered • 03/09/16
Tutor
New to Wyzant
Math, Business and Science Tutor - Attended McCombs School of Business
Seven more than twice a number is 17. Let's break down this sentence into numbers so you can see what's going on.
"Seven more than twice a number" - This tells you that there is a number, let's call it y, that is 7 more than twice a different number, lets call this x. So in equation form this is y = 7 + 2x. Hmm this seems a little tricky, how do we find the answer? Well if we keep reading, it tells you that the number that is 7 more than twice another number is 17, so we now know that y = 17. So let's redo our equation by substituting y for the number 17:
17 = 7 + 2x
Now we have a workable equation. We need to solve for x. So let's rewrite this equation without changing it, just putting it in different order. Now we have 2x + 7 = 17. So how do we solve for x? First, we subtract 7 from both sides. Remember, when solving for x, anything you do to one side you must do to the other. So now we get this:
2x + 7 = 17 simplifies to 2x = 10
Now if we divide both sides by 2 to get x all by itself, we get x = 5. That is your answer. You can check it by substituting 5 for s in your original equation of 2x + 7 = 17, then you get 2(5) + 7 = 17. It works! Hope this helps!
"Seven more than twice a number" - This tells you that there is a number, let's call it y, that is 7 more than twice a different number, lets call this x. So in equation form this is y = 7 + 2x. Hmm this seems a little tricky, how do we find the answer? Well if we keep reading, it tells you that the number that is 7 more than twice another number is 17, so we now know that y = 17. So let's redo our equation by substituting y for the number 17:
17 = 7 + 2x
Now we have a workable equation. We need to solve for x. So let's rewrite this equation without changing it, just putting it in different order. Now we have 2x + 7 = 17. So how do we solve for x? First, we subtract 7 from both sides. Remember, when solving for x, anything you do to one side you must do to the other. So now we get this:
2x + 7 = 17 simplifies to 2x = 10
Now if we divide both sides by 2 to get x all by itself, we get x = 5. That is your answer. You can check it by substituting 5 for s in your original equation of 2x + 7 = 17, then you get 2(5) + 7 = 17. It works! Hope this helps!
