Question

Each of 5 gift bags contains x pencils. Tyler adds 3 more pencils to each bag. Altogether, the gift bags contain 20 pencils.

Write an equation for the story. (use "X")

what is the reason for multiplication in the story?

Answer 1

Answer: The equation is 5x+15 = 20

Step-by-step explanation:

Each of the five bags contain x pencils, where x is a placeholder for a positive whole number.

This means Tyler starts off with 5x pencils

He then adds 3 pencils per bag, so 3*5 = 15 extra pencils, to get the expression 5x+15. We're told the new grand total is 20 pencils.

Therefore, the equation for this story problem is 5x+15 = 20

The reason for the multiplication is because we have the same number of pencils per bag. So we're adding multiple groups together, or using multiplication to do a shortcut.

eg: instead of 5+5+5 = 15 we can do 5*3 = 15