Melodie B. answered • 10/28/19
Tutor
5.0
(93)
PhD in Engineering with love of algebra
Rephrase the word problem as variables and numbers. The answer/ number that you're looking for = x.
7 less (negative) than 3 times the number (x) = 23
-7 + 3x = 23
Now solve for x.
-7 +7 + 3x = 23 +7
3x = 30
3x/3 = 30/3
x = 10
Now check your answer
-7 + 3(10) = 23
-7 + 30 = 23
23 = 23
Melodie B.
Hi Almaz, sure! It's negative bc it says "7 less than." Less means negative. For example, Bob has 7 less marbles than Sam. Sam has 10 marbles, how many marbles does Bob have? You can write it as -7 + 10 = 3 or 10 - 7 = 3 to figure out how many marbles that Bob has. If Bob had 7 MORE marbles than Sam, then the equation would be 7 +10 = 17 marbles.
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10/30/19
Almaz S.
Thank you so much! But, could you explain please, why we have -7 and not positive, and also why there's + between two -7 and 3x because the problem says that seven is less than trimple a number? Thank you!10/28/19