second attemp...Man, are we confused now.

Question

students in spanish increse each year....

 

555 + 33x

 

students in french decrease each year

 

230 - 2x

 

assuming consistent enrollment numbers, how many years will there be 3 times as many spanish students than french.

 

 

555 +33x = (230 - 2x)/3 is how we set it up which the same as 3(555+33x) = 230 -2x

 

...but this isnt correct, obviously.

 

 

Answer 1

Sometimes it is helpful to take real examples just to check if your set up is correct.

 

There are three times as many Spanish as French....So are there more Spanish or French students? Which number needs to be tripled to get the other? So if you had 10 French students, you would have 3 times as many Spanish as French..30.

 

If you had to set this comparison up without your expression, i always teach that the one at the end of the sentence is the single variable....so Span = 3*French.

 

So the equation you need is555+3x = 3(230-2x)

 

Hope this helped