Question

Which of the following is the correct mathematical expression for:

The difference between three times a number and 4

Answer 1

3x - 4

Explanation:

"Difference" is a clue word that tells you to use subtraction. The other clue word is "times" but that means times, or multiplication and is pretty straight forward.

"Three times a number" means to multiply a number, but we don't know the number, so we use a variable (a letter). I put x but you could use n or c or almost any letter for the variable.

"the difference of ___ and ___" means to subtract those two things.

So we get 3x - 4