How would you write an equation to describe: the difference between five times a number and 8 is 27?

1 Answer
Dec 14, 2017

C. #5n-8=27#

Explanation:

This question is simple algebra. It is asking how you would write an equation from the information it has given you.

The first thing that you would do is read the first part of the sentence: the difference of #5# times a number and #8#. This tells you that you are going to be subtracting a product of a number and #8#, making the first part of the equation #5n-8#.

The next part of the sentence is "is". Whenever "is" is stated in a word problem in which you have to write an equation or an inequality, you automatically know that it is an equation. Equations contain equal signs while inequalities contain greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, less than or equal to, or not equal signs.

The equation is now

#5n-8=#

The next step would be to figure out what #5n-8# is equal to, and in this case, it would be #27#.

So, the equation would be

#5n-8=27#