Question

How do you write the expression: Half of a number decreased by 7 is at least 5?

Answer 1

`n/2-7 >= 5color(white)("XXX")orcolor(white)("XXX")(n-7)/2 >= 5`
...depending upon how you interpret the ambiguous statement.

Explanation:

For both interpretations (below) we will let the "number" be represented by the variable `n`.

Interpretation 1
`color(red)("Half of a number") color(blue)(" decreased by 7")color(green)(" is at least 5")`

`color(red)(n/2)color(blue)(-7)color(green)(>=5)`

Interpretation 2
`color(red)("Half of ")color(blue)("a number decreased by 7 ")color(green)("is at least 5")`

`color(red)(1/2 * color(blue)(""(n-7))color(green)(>=5)` or `color(blue)(n-7)/color(red)2color(green)(>=5)`