Question

How do you translate the phrase into a variable expression: difference between a number and 2?

Answer 1

Hint: To solve this question, we need to know the phrases used for different mathematical operations. These basic operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We will first see different phrases used for these operations and from that we will translate the given phrase into a variable expression.

Complete step by step answer:
Let us first see the different possible phrases that can be used to express different mathematical operations.
Addition of two numbers can be expressed using the following phrases:
Plus, the sum of, added to, total, more than and increased by.
Subtraction of two numbers can be expressed using the following phrases:
Minus, the difference of, the difference between, subtracted from, fewer than, less than and decreased by.
Multiplication of two numbers can be expressed using the following phrases:
The product of, times, of, multiplied by.
Division of two numbers can be expressed using the following phrases:
Divided by, the quotient of and per.
Now, we are asked to translate the phrase: difference between a number and 2, which contains the phrase “the difference between”. From the information discussed, we can say that this is the operation of subtraction.
Let us consider the number which is unknown as a variable \[x\].
Therefore, we need to write the expression for the difference between \[x\] and 2 which means that 2 is subtracted from \[x\].

Hence, our final answer is: \[x - 2\].

Note: In this type of question, where we have an unknown number, we need to assume that as a variable. This variable can be represented as any small letters of the alphabet from a to z. Normally, x and y letters are used in algebra.