triple the difference of a value, k, and nineteen

Question

triple the difference of a value, k, and nineteen 



Answer 1

You are told that "k" is a value (in other words, it represents some random number). The difference between "k" and 19 is "k - 19". But, in reality, I would venture to say that a better way to consider it is |k - 19| (absolute value) because it doesn't really matter that you are subtracting k from 19 or 19 from k, the result is that you are 19 numbers away from where you started either way.

So, then tripling that you get 3|k - 19|

Answer 2

Hi Lil,

You didn't include the question, but if it's just to translate the expression from English to Algebra:

"triple the difference of k and 19"

"triple" = Three times; i.e. multiply by 3

"difference" = Subtract, i.e. k-19

So the expression is:

3*(k-19)

I hope this helps.

Answer 3

If we want to turn this verbal description into a mathematical expression, we need to look for some key words.

Triple means we'll multiple something by 3. In this scenario, we want to multiply the "difference of a value k and 19".

Difference refers to subtraction. So the "difference of a value k and 19" is k - 19

Then if we want to triple that value (or multiply by 3), we'll need to be careful to keep that expression together using parentheses:

3(k - 19)

Hope that was helpful!