Factor the expression and write an expression for the amount of candy she has left.

Question

tracy had 40x pieces of candy. She made y gift bags to give to her party guests. Each bag contained 16 pieces of candy. Write an expression for the amount of candy she has left.

Answer 1

Well you're looking for an expression to express the difference between the total amount of candy she had and how much candy she gave away.

 

She gave away y bags of candy with 16 pieces in each which means to find the amount of candy she gave away you multiply the two–so 16*y.

 

You then subtract this from the total amount of candy, 40x, to get the expression: 40x-16y. This expression can be simplified, but I'll let you do that.

Answer 2

It can be tricky sometimes to see how to write a word problem in math terms.

 

So lets break it down:

 

It is asking how many pieces of candy she has left, so it is likely a subtraction problem.  A subtraction problem can sound like:

 

What she had - Something = What she has left

 

So it wants you to write the expression for what she had left

 

Tracy had 40x pieces of candy

 

She made y gift bags

Each bag has 16 pieces of candy in it

 

So your expression will be

 

40x - 16y

 

Good Luck