Question

Marcus has one book less than three times the number of books that Jessie has. Use the algebra tiles to create a model of the number of books Marcus has if Jessie has x number of books. When you are done, take a screen shot and attach it to the assignment submission.

Answer 1

Let's define the variables:

M = number of books that Marcus has.

x = number of books that Jessie has.

We know that:

"Marcus has one book less than three times the number of books that Jessie has."

Then the equation that represents the number of books that Marcus has is:

M = 3*x - 1.

Then if x tiles represent the number of books that Jessie has, the number of tiles for Marcus will be 3 times that, and then subtract one tile.