In a certain homeroom, the number of girls is 6 less than twice the number of boys. If class contains b boys, which of the following would express the total number of students present in the class if two girls were absent?

Question

anonymous · Answer

a. 2b-8
b. 2b-4
c. 3b-8
d. 3b-6
e. 3b-4

anonymous · Answer

Ok this problem is pretty hard to explain and I can't really do it myself but what I did was plug any number in for b, like 8.  To find how many girls there are first of all, i used g = 2b - 6.  When I plugged  in 8, i got a total of 10.  So there are 10 girls if there are 8 boys.  Do you get where I am going?

anonymous · Answer

they want you to try to "translate" the English-language sentence into Math-language  expression

anonymous · Answer

the total number of students left with 2 absent is all the boys plus all the girls minus 2.

anonymous · Answer

the number of boys is "b"
the number of girls is twice the number of boys, then minus 6, so it's 2b - 6

anonymous · Answer

However you have to find the total amount of kids in the room when 2 girls are absent.  Since i found out that 8 boys = 10 girls in one room, the total amount of kids in that room would = 16 kids since 2 girls are absent.  If you plug 8 into answer C, you get the same amount of kids. So then answer is C

anonymous · Answer

Total number of students is boys plus girls minus 2 absent
b + (2b-6) - 2
this is "boys" + "girls" - 2

Simplified, it is 3b-8

anonymous · Answer

Your way was fine, @Brybro... I was just giving another way to think of it since you said you had a hard time explaining it  Good work :)

anonymous · Answer

I hope you don't mind who I give this medal too! Both of you explained it very well :)

anonymous · Answer

Glad to help :)