six less than the product of 3 & a number

Answer 1

Hello!

Wording is so important with regard to these types of questions, and I will assume the question is written exactly as presented. First, we should look at our "context clues" in the statement:

"six less than the product of three and a number"

I do not see the word "is" so it cannot be an equation, and I do not see the phrase "is less than", which would imply it is an inequality. So it has to be an expression! (expressions are math statements that do not have an equal sign or inequality sign.

Now let's break down each context clue in our statement:

"six less than the product of three and a number"

(subtracting six)

"six less than the product of three and a number"

(the following two items will multiply together)

"six less than the product of three and a number"

(the two items we are multiplying are three and a number)

What is a number? Well, we don't know that! But we can certainly give this unknown number a name, we can call it 'n' for now.

So 3*n is a product of three and a number, or we can just write '3n'

Then, we'll subtract 6 from 3n, leaving us with the answer:

six less than the product of three and a number

3n-6

I hoped this helped! For future assistance, let me know and I would be more than happy to schedule a session to discuss the topic further.

Sincerely,

Derek D.

Answer 2

3x-6............................