Brian bought n packs of pencils. Each pack has 10 pencils. Write an equation to represent the total number of pencils p that Brian bought.

Question

n and p are veriables and 10 is the number in the eqation

Answer 1

Seth, it can get confusing when they start adding the alphabet to math! All the letters are are placeholders, like a blank. Instead of saying ___ + 5 = 11, fill in the blank, they are saying a + 5 = 11, what is the value of a?

 

Sometimes, they may say what is a + 5 if a = 13? You'd subsitute 13 for a and get 18.

 

If I bought 2 packs of pencils, I bought 10(2) = 20 pencils, but when we write an equation, we put the answer first, so 20 = 10(2).

 

Buuuut, we were told he bought n packs for p total pencils.

 

p = 10n

 

Hope this helps!