Question

A group of 72 people travel to the beach for a clean-up day. Some of the people bring their own supplies (such as gloves, water, and garbage bags). Supplies are provided for the rest of the people.

Write an equation for the number of people for whom supplies will be provided, p, if b people bring their own supplies.

Answer 1

72 - b = p

Explanation:

You could also write it as if you know the total and take away the number that have supplies, what is left would be people without supplies.

Answer 2

To represent this, you could write and equation showing that when b and p are put together you will have the total number of people (72).

b + p = 72

You could also write it as if you know the total and take away the number that have supplies, what is left would be people without supplies.

72 - b = p