Question

10. While catching fireflies, you and a friend decide to have a competition. After m minutes, you have (4m +11) fireflies and your friend has (5m +6) fireflies

A. Write an expression in simplest form that represents the number of fireflies you and your friend caught together.

B. The competition ends after 5 minutes(m). Who has more fireflies. Explain how you know.

Answer 1

a. 9m+17

b. You caught more fireflies

Explanation:

Answer 2

Lets look at the expressions with respect to the competition parameters:

Expressions:

You(Y) =4m+11

Friend(F)=5m+6

1. The competition begins AFTER you and friend already caught some flies. This would be represented by the CONSTANT terms in each expression (in this case, 13 for you, 6 for friend).

So the number of flies caught BEFORE THE COMPETITION would be...

11+6=17 flies total

2. The competition length was "m" minutes long when flies are caught and counted. This would be represented by the VARIABLE terms in each expression (in this case, 4m for you, 5m for friend). We are not given a numeric value for the variable "m" to evaluate.

So the number of flies caught DURING THE COMPETITION (timed "m" minutes long) would be....

4m+5m=9m flies total

...and the number of flies per minute would be calculated as......

9m÷m=9 flies per min....total #flies divided by total minutes

3. If the problem asked for the total number of flies caught by you and friend, before and after the competition....

9m+17 flies total.....add like terms in each expression.