How would you write an equation to describe: the difference between five times a number and 8 is 27?

Question

Abigail Allen · Accepted Answer

undefined The equation to describe the situation "the difference between five times a number and 8 is 27" would be:

$$ 5x - 8 = 27 $$

where $ x $ represents the unknown number.

Eli Assouline · Answer

C. #5n-8=27#

This is a basic algebra question that asks you to write an equation using the information provided.

The first thing that you would do is read the first part of the sentence: the difference of #5# times a number and #8#. This tells you that you are going to be subtracting a product of a number and #8#, making the first part of the equation #5n-8#.

The word "is" follows, and anytime you see the word "is" in a word problem where you have to write an inequality or an equation, you can be certain that the problem is an equation because inequality signs are greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, less than or equal to, or not equal.

The formula is currently

#5n-8=#

The next step would be to figure out what #5n-8# is equal to, and in this case, it would be #27#.

Thus, the formula would be

#5n-8=27#