Question

What is the correct solution to this problem?



A number divided by 3 is four more than –11. What is the number?



A.


–45


B.


–21


C.




D.
45

Answer 1

C. is -7/3

Answer 2

-21/3 = -7
-7 is more that -11 bu four

Answer 3

so its -7/3?

Answer 4

no look what i did, the answer is with in the problem

Answer 5

The key is in the line "A number divided by 3 is four more than –11. What is the number?" You need to be able to write that as an equation. A number means some random number, also known as a variable. So, "X divided by 3 is four more than –11." Can you change that into an equation?

Answer 6

This site has an entire section on "Solving Word Problems" at the bottom:
http://www.purplemath.com/modules/index.htm

It covers things like "Translation: How to translate word problems from English into mathematical equations," which is what you need to be able to do to solve these.

Also, many real world math problems are originally just a string of words. "How do we know how high this needs to be?" or "How much would it cost to build?" are math problems in disguise that go on every day. So this is an important skill to develop.