<img src="https://d5nxst8fruw4z.cloudfront.net/atrk.gif?account=iA1Pi1a8Dy00ym" style="display:none" height="1" width="1" alt="" />

# Patterns and Expressions

## Write variable expressions to represent word problems.

Estimated10 minsto complete
%
Progress
Practice Patterns and Expressions

MEMORY METER
This indicates how strong in your memory this concept is
Progress
Estimated10 minsto complete
%
Patterns and Expressions

What if you knew the Booster Club sold 855 spaghetti dinners and collected $6840? How could you write an equation to find the amount each diner paid? After completing this Concept, you'll be able to write equations like this one. ### Guidance In mathematics, and especially in algebra, we look for patterns in the numbers we see. The tools of algebra help us describe these patterns with words and with equations (formulas or functions). An equation is a mathematical recipe that gives the value of one variable in terms of another. For example, if a theme park charges$12 admission, then the number of people who enter the park every day and the amount of money taken in by the ticket office are related mathematically, and we can write a rule to find the amount of money taken in by the ticket office.

In words, we might say “The amount of money taken in is equal to twelve times the number of people who enter the park.”

We could also make a table. The following table relates the number of people who visit the park and the total money taken in by the ticket office.

\begin{align*}& \text{Number of visitors} \qquad 1 \qquad 2 \qquad 3 \qquad 4 \qquad 5 \qquad 6 \qquad 7\\ & \text{Money taken in} \ (\) \quad \ \ 12 \quad \ \ 24 \quad \ 36 \quad \ 48 \quad \ \ 60 \quad \ 72 \quad \ \ 84\end{align*}

Clearly, we would need a big table to cope with a busy day in the middle of a school vacation!

A third way we might relate the two quantities (visitors and money) is with a graph. If we plot the money taken in on the vertical axis and the number of visitors on the horizontal axis, then we would have a graph that looks like the one shown below. Note that this graph shows a smooth line that includes non-whole number values of \begin{align*}x\end{align*} (e.g. \begin{align*}x = 2.5\end{align*}). In real life this would not make sense, because fractions of people can’t visit a park. This is an issue of domain and range, something we will talk about later.

The method we will examine in detail in this lesson is closer to the first way we chose to describe the relationship. In words we said that “The amount of money taken in is twelve times the number of people who enter the park.” In mathematical terms we can describe this sort of relationship with variables. A variable is a letter used to represent an unknown quantity. We can see the beginning of a mathematical formula in the words:

The amount of money taken in is twelve times the number of people who enter the park.

This can be translated to:

\begin{align*}\text{the amount of money taken in} = 12 \times (\text{the number of people who enter the park})\end{align*}

We can now see which quantities can be assigned to letters. First we must state which letters (or variables) relate to which quantities. We call this defining the variables:

Let \begin{align*}x =\end{align*} the number of people who enter the theme park.

Let \begin{align*}y =\end{align*} the total amount of money taken in at the ticket office.

We now have a fourth way to describe the relationship: with an algebraic equation.

\begin{align*}y = 12x\end{align*}

Writing a mathematical equation using variables is very convenient. You can perform all of the operations necessary to solve this problem without having to write out the known and unknown quantities over and over again. At the end of the problem, you just need to remember which quantities \begin{align*}x\end{align*} and \begin{align*}y\end{align*} represent.

Write an Equation

An equation is a term used to describe a collection of numbers and variables related through mathematical operators. An algebraic equation will contain letters that represent real quantities. For example, if we wanted to use the algebraic equation in the example above to find the money taken in for a certain number of visitors, we would substitute that number for \begin{align*}x\end{align*} and then solve the resulting equation for \begin{align*}y\end{align*}.

Week Number Balance ($) 1 100 2 78 3 56 4 34 Write an equation for the money remaining on the card in any given week. ### Practice Day Profit 1 20 2 40 3 60 4 80 5 100 For 1-3, use the above table, which depicts the profit in dollars taken in by a store each day. 1. Write a mathematical equation that describes the relationship between the variables in the table. 2. What is the profit on day 10? 3. If the profit on a certain day is$200, what is the profit on the next day?

For 4-6, Write a mathematical equation that describes each situation below, assuming the cookie jar starts with 24 cookies.

1. How many cookies are left in the jar after you have eaten some?
2. How many cookies are in the jar after you have eaten 9 cookies?
3. How many cookies are in the jar after you have eaten 9 cookies and then eaten 3 more?

For 7-12, write a mathematical equation for the following situations and solve.

1. Seven times a number is 35. What is the number?
2. Three times a number, plus 15, is 24. What is the number?
3. Twice a number is three less than five times another number. Three times the second number is 15. What are the numbers?
4. One number is 25 more than 2 times another number. If each number were multiplied by five, their sum would be 350. What are the numbers?
5. The sum of two consecutive integers is 35. What are the numbers?
6. Peter is three times as old as he was six years ago. How old is Peter?

For 13-16, Jae just took a math test with 20 questions, each worth an equal number of points. The test is worth 100 points total.

1. Write an equation relating the number of questions Jae got right to the total score he will get on the test.
2. If a score of 70 points earns a grade of \begin{align*}C-\end{align*}, how many questions would Jae need to get right to get a \begin{align*}C-\end{align*} on the test?
3. If a score of 83 points earns a grade of \begin{align*}B\end{align*}, how many questions would Jae need to get right to get a \begin{align*}B\end{align*} on the test?
4. Suppose Jae got a score of 60% and then was allowed to retake the test. On the retake, he got all the questions right that he got right the first time, and also got half the questions right that he got wrong the first time. What is his new score?

For 17-22, solve the problem by writing an equation.

1. How much water should be added to one liter of pure alcohol to make a mixture of 25% alcohol?
2. A mixture of 50% alcohol and 50% water has 4 liters of water added to it. It is now 25% alcohol. What was the total volume of the original mixture?
3. In Crystal’s silverware drawer there are twice as many spoons as forks. If Crystal adds nine forks to the drawer, there will be twice as many forks as spoons. How many forks and how many spoons are in the drawer right now?
4. Mia is exploring different routes to drive to Javier's house.
1. Mia drove to Javier’s house at 40 miles per hour. Javier’s house is 20 miles away. Mia arrived at Javier’s house at 2:00 pm. What time did she leave?
2. Mia left Javier’s house at 6:00 pm to drive home. This time she drove 25% faster. What time did she arrive home?
3. The next day, Mia took the expressway to Javier’s house. This route was 24 miles long, but she was able to drive at 60 miles per hour. How long did the trip take?
4. When Mia took the same route back, traffic on the expressway was 20% slower. How long did the return trip take?
5. The price of an mp3 player decreased by 20% from last year to this year. This year the price of the player is $120. What was the price last year? 6. SmartCo sells deluxe widgets for$60 each, which includes the cost of manufacture plus a 20% markup. What does it cost SmartCo to manufacture each widget?

### Notes/Highlights Having trouble? Report an issue.

Color Highlighted Text Notes