Thread: Algebraic Sentences Urgant help

Okay I am reading out of my book and it says: Five times a number is 35 greater than twice the oppocite of the number. What is the number.

I am so cluless and if you have a trick to understanding it please tell me.

Originally Posted by Megpup

Okay I am reading out of my book and it says: Five times a number is 35 greater than twice the oppocite of the number. What is the number.

I am so cluless and if you have a trick to understanding it please tell me.

the oppsosite of a number is defined as the number that when added to the original gives zero. in this context, it's just the negative of the number.

let the number be x

so 5 times the number is 5x and that is greater than -2x (twice the opposite of x) by 35, so if we add 35 to -2x we get 5x

so 5x = 35 - 2x
=> 7x = 35 ...........added 2x to both sides, 5x + 2x = 7x
=> x = 35/7 ..........divided both sides by 7
=> x = 5

How do you get 7 in this problem? And does X equal 1?

Originally Posted by Megpup

How do you get 7 in this problem? And does X equal 1?

i modified what i did above. i added 2x to 5x to get 7x

x cannot be 1, let's check.

is 5*1 = 35 - 2*1 ....?

of course not

x = 5

since 5*5 = 35 - 2*5 = 35 - 10 = 25