decreased numbers

Question

Translate “some number decreased by another number divided by 5” to a math equation.

Answer 1

As written, that is ambiguous.

“some number decreased by another number divided by 5”

The first step is to assign variable names---typically, we use a letter.

"some number" = x

"another number" = y

The ambiguity: Is x decreased by y, and then the result divided by 5? OR: Is x decreased by the result of dividing y by 5?

Assuming that the result is set equal to another variable (call it z), then we have 2 possible answers:

z = (x - y) / 5

OR:

z = x - (y/5)

Answer 2

We are asked to provide an expression.

As mentioned, it could be (x - y)/5 but I think that would be worded slightly differently to make it more clear that is what they are looking for.

x - y/5