Question

During a football game, Igli gained 3 yards on the first play. Then he lost 9 yards on the second play. How many yards does Igli need to gain on the next play to end up where he started? Show your thinking!

Answer 1

6 yards

Explanation:

In order to solve this problem, we can take it one step at a time. In this question, we can assume that Igli's starting point is 0. If on the first play he gained 3 yards that means we add this value to the starting point.

0 + 3 = 3 yards.

Now his current position is 3 yards. In the next play, he lost 9 yards which means we must subtract that from his current position.

3 - 9 = -6 yards

Now his current position is -6 yards. In order to get back to the initial position of 0 we need to add the opposite amount of yards as his current position. Since his current position is -6 we need to add positive 6 yards to get him back to 0.