The sum of five and twice a number is 17 | MathCelebrity Forum

The sum of five and twice a number is 17

math_celebrity

Administrator
Staff member
The sum of five and twice a number is 17

The phrase a number means an arbitrary variable, let's call it x
x

Twice a number means we multiply x by 2:
2x

The sum of five and twice a number means we add 5 to 2x:
2x + 5

The phrase is means an equation, so we set 2x + 5 equal to 17 to get our algebraic expression
2x + 5 = 17

As a bonus, if the problem asks you to solve for x, we type in this algebraic expression into our math engine and we get:
x = 6
 
Back
Top