Final answer:
The sentence "Seven less than 4 times a number gives 17" is translated into the equation 4x - 7 = 17, where x represents the variable.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student is asking how to write the sentence "Seven less than 4 times a number gives 17" as a mathematical equation using x as the variable. To do this, we interpret the sentence step by step. The phrase "4 times a number" suggests 4 times a variable, which we can express as 4x. "Seven less than" indicates that we need to subtract 7 from this expression, leading us to 4x - 7. Finally, "gives 17" tells us that this expression is equal to 17. So, the equation we get is 4x - 7 = 17.