Q7: Write an expression to represent the following: Two less than the product of five and a number x.

Answer 1

You should recognize that there are two arithmetic operations indicated in this problem: "less than" means you've got some subtraction to do, and "product" indicates multiplication. "2 less than" indicates that 2 is being subtracted from something, and the next thing described in the wording of the problem is "the product of..." so this indicates what you should be multiplying together. So the product of five and a number x can be represented as 5x, and from that you are subtracting 2, so the expression should be written as 5x - 2.