Question

You and your friends are splitting the cost of some peaches at a roadside stand. The expression 3.5x/5 represents how much each person had to pay. Based on this situation, how many friends do you have?

Answer 1

You have 4 friends

Explanation:

Let's break our expression apart

- 3.5 is the cost of one peach

-
`x` is the number of peaches

So, the total cost of
`x` peaches is
`3.5x`.

Now, the expression
`(3.5x)/(5)` means that you are dividing the total cost of the peaches among you and your friends. The thing you are dividing by; in other words, the denominator of your fraction, 5, indicates how much you and your friends will pay for the total number of peaches.

Now, to find how many friends you have, you need to subtract 1 (you) from 5 (you and your friends):

Friends you have = 5 - 1

Friends you have = 4

We can conclude that you have 4 friends