Question

What is the most important variable in the problem?

An auto shop has 98 cans of oil at the beginning of the day. 12 hours later, there are 10 cans remaining. How many were sold?

Answer 1

Explanation:

There are two if you want to answer the question. You have to know the starting value, and you have to know the ending value.

The question asks how many cans were sold. You can't answer that without knowing what you started with and what you ended with.

98 - 10 = 88