168k views
5 votes
The value of n is a distance of 3 units from 1 1/2 on a number line

1 Answer

1 vote

Answer:

n = -1 1/2, 4 1/2

Explanation:

So here we will have two equations since we do not know which direction n is from 1 1/2

  • n + 3 = 1 1/2 → n + 3 = 3/2
  • n - 3 = 1 1/2 → n - 3 = 3/2

I converted the mixed numbers to improper fractions to make it easier to add/subtract to

Our first equation, n + 3 = 3/2, we need to subtract 3 from both sides and we get n = 3/2 - 3

  • We will need to turn the 3 into a fraction with a denominator of 2 in order to subtract them. To do so, we need to multiply the 3 by 2/2 to get: n = 3/2 - 6/2
  • Now we can subtract the two fractions to get n = -3/2 = -1 1/2

For our second equation, n - 3 = 3/2, we need to add 3 to both sides and we get n = 3/2 + 3

  • We will also need to turn the 3 into a fraction with a denominator of 2 and we can do so by following the same procedure as before and we get: n = 3/2 + 6/2
  • Adding these fractions we get n = 9/2 = 4 1/2
User Artenes Nogueira
by
4.9k points