Question

23 decreased by the product of 44 and an unknown number is 199. What is the value of the unknown number?

Answer 1

x = - 4

Explanation:

Call x the unknow number, we have this equation:

23 - 44x = 199
-44x = 199 - 23 = 176
`x = 176/-44 = - 4`

Answer 2

You may want to look at your question again, but I think the number you want, is 4.

Explanation:

You have the product of 44 and an unknown number m.
When you decrease 23 with the product of 44 and m, i.e. 44m, you want the result to be 199.

Only problem is that `199 > 23`, so to get this, we need to increase 23, not decrease it.

But if we turn the question around and write: Increase 23 with the product of 44 and m and you get 199.

To get this, 23 must be increased by `199-23=176`

Therefore `m=176/44=4`