Question

a football team has a net yardage of -26 and 1/3 yards on a series of plays. the team needs a net yardage of 10 yards to get a first down. How many yards does the team have to get on the next play to get a first down?

Answer 1

A football team has a net yardage of -26 and 1/3 yards.

To get a first down, they need a net yardage of +10.

So in order to get a first down on the next play, they need to make up for the 26 and 1/3 yards, and then an extra 10 yards on top of that.

Thus they need 26 + 1/3 + 10 yards.
Or 36 1/3 yards.