How to Write an Algebraic Equation From a Word Problem
Solving algebraic word problems is the backbone of physical science as well as an important component of high school and college math. To complete these problems you must be able to translate words into numbers and operations, which this article will help you do.
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Instructions
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Read the problem once before writing anything. Make sure you understand the situation described in the problem and what the problem is asking.
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Choose letters or symbols to represent variables in the problem. For example, consider the statement, "The number of oranges in your shopping cart is three less than twice the number of apples." The variables are oranges and apples, and logical choices for letters are "O" and "A."
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Identify key words and phrases that correspond to mathematical operations. "More than," "sum," "and" and "total" usually indicate addition, while "less than," "decreases by" and "difference" usually means subtraction. "Times," "product" and "of" are associated with multiplication ("twice" is two times, "thrice" is three times), while "quotient" and "per" indicate division. And "is" is the equivalent of an equal sign.
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Write the algebraic equation using your variables and the operations and equal sign based on key words and phrases. In our example problem, the equation would look like: O = 2A - 3
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If necessary solve or graph the equation. To solve our example problem we would need to be given either the number of oranges or the number of apples, though we could graph the equation as is. If we were told we had five apples, then the number of oranges would be: O = 2(5) - 3 = 7
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