Question

Write an equation that represents the following word problem.

Jackie has four more apples than Mark and together they have twelve apples. How many apples do each Jackie and Mark have?
a + (a - 4) = 12
a + (a + 4) = 12
both of these would work
neither of these would work

Answer 1

both

Explanation:

I got it right on the quiz

Answer 2

Both would work.

Explanation:

If we call Jackie's apples a, then Mark has a - 4 apples. Therefore, together they have a + (a - 4) apples, and we know that they have a total of 12 apples so we can write a + (a - 4) = 12 to represent the situation. On the other hand, if Mark has a apples, then Jackie has a + 4 apples, so we can also write a + (a + 4) = 12 to represent the situation as well. Therefore, both of the equations would work. Hope this helps!