Can someone help me with algebra?

2010-06-13 10:13 pm
i have two questions. write each english phrase as an algebraic expression. let x represent the number:

1) the difference of six and half of a number

my answer is: 6-x/2 (x over 2)

2) the quotient of three and the difference of five and a number

my answer is: 3/5-x (3 over 5-x)

am i correct?

thank you!

回答 (4)

2010-06-13 10:30 pm
✔ 最佳答案
Sorry, but these are by no means perfect answers. They are ambiguous and open to misinterpretation.

Mathematics is about being precise and completely understandable. It is not always easy on this site to format things properly, so you must be very careful to use what formatting you can to make things clear. Essentially, this means thinking hard about what bits should be kept separate and what should be kept together, and using brackets, lots of them, where necessary, to do this.

Take 6 - x / 2. Does this mean (6 - x) divided by 2 ? Or does it mean 6 minus (x/2) ? Without the explanation in words, no-one would know. And the result is very different for the two expressions.

So the answer is 6 - (x/2).


3/5 - x : even your explanation ("3 over 5 - x" is ambiguous.) This could mean (3/5) - x or 3/(5 - x).

But the statement you are trying to convert makes it clear, of course, that you mean

3 / (5 - x).

These matters are important, particularly if you later start posting more complicated expressions. There are dozens of such questions on this site right now which are difficult, sometimes impossible, to unravel.
2010-06-14 5:18 am
Perfect.
2010-06-14 5:17 am
Hun, i ain't an algebra expert but the look fine x
2010-06-14 5:20 am
1)= x/2-6 because your subtracting 6 from x/2
2)=(5-n)÷3

I learned in school to formulate the equation to write what is said backwards. hope i helped!
參考: SCHOOL by teachers


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