Shawna noticed that the distance from her house to the ocean, which is 40 miles, was one fifth the distance from her house to the mountains. How do you write and solve a division equation to find the distance from Shawna's house to the mountains?

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Answer 1 · 2017-01-11T23:52:41

The equation you want is #40 = 1/5 x#

and the distance to the mountains is 200 miles.

If we let #x# represent the distance to the mountains, the fact that 40 miles (to the ocean) is one-fifth of the distance to the mountains is written

#40 = 1/5 x#

Note that the word "of" usually translates into "multiply" in algebra.

Multiply each side by 5:

#40xx5=x#

#x=200# miles