Question

The Hiking Club is taking another trip. The hike leader's watch shows that they gained 296 feet in altitude from their starting position

Their altitude is now 285 feet, but there is no record of their starting altitude.
Write and solve an equation to represent this situation and find their starting altitude.

Answer 1

We can start by using the information given to set up an equation that represents the situation. Let x be the starting altitude.

We know that:

The starting altitude + the altitude gained = the current altitude

The current altitude is 285 feet

The altitude gained is 296 feet

So, we can write an equation to represent this situation as:

x + 296 = 285

To find the starting altitude, we need to solve for x. To do this, we'll subtract 296 from both sides of the equation:

x + 296 - 296 = 285 - 296

x = -11

However, an altitude of -11 feet is not possible. We can infer that the starting altitude is actually 0 feet.

So the starting altitude is x=0 feet