Question

Harry has $72$ baseball cards. This is $8$ times as many cards as Hans has. How many baseball cards does Hans have?

Answer 1

Hint: First of all, we have to read the entire problem and then find out the details of which we are not provided with. That thing will be the variable of the problem. So, the number of cards of Hans will be the variable x and also $72$ is eight times of x. Solving this equation, we can find x.

Complete step by step answer:
After reading the entire problem, we can clearly figure it out that this is a typical problem of algebra. Algebra deals with the part of mathematics that focuses on the use of alphabets for the amount or quantity that we do not know for the time being. These unknowns are called variables. There are a lot of times when we come across such variables, the value of which we are not given but, the properties or characteristics of which we are told of. We can use these properties to reach the value of the variable.
In this problem, after reading the sentence we can see that we are told everything except the number of cards that Hans has. As we are not told anything about it, the number of cards owned by Hans is a variable, and let it be x. The property of x that we are told is that the number of cards that Harry has is eight times more than the cards owned by Hans. This means than,
$\begin{align}
  & 72=8x \\
 & \Rightarrow x=9 \\
\end{align}$

Therefore, we can conclude that the number of cards that Hans has is $9$

Note: In these problems, we should have patience while solving. We should always read the entire problem and then find out the variables and details of it and should not judge after reading it halfway. Also, we should take care of the signs and the position of the word “times” as this changes everything.