Question

Use the six steps in the "Blueprint for Problem Solving" to solve the following word problem. You may recognize the solution by just reading the problem. Use n as the variable for the number and write the equation used to describe the problem.When 8 is subtracted from three times a number, the result is 4. Find the number.Equation: ? The number is ? .

Answer 1

Let n be the number we don't know.

Three times this number can be express as:

`3n`

The sentence "When 8 is subtracted from three times a number" can be express (using the expression we found before) as:

`3n-8`

Finally we know that this is equal to 4, then we have the equation:

`3n-8=4`

Solving for n we have:

`\begin{gathered} 3n-8=4 \\ 3n=8+4 \\ 3n=12 \\ n=(12)/(3) \\ n=4 \end{gathered}`

Therefore the number we are looking for is 4.