Question

How do you translate to an algebraic expression 3 times the difference of x and y?

Answer 1

Hint: The statement for the algebraic expression we need to convert is “3 times the difference of x and y”. In this statement “times” means multiplication and “difference” means the subtraction of y from x. The way we are going to write the algebraic expression is by taking the subtraction of y from x firstly and then we will multiply 3 to this difference.

Complete step by step answer:
The statement given in the above problem which we have to convert mathematically is as follows:
“3 times the difference of x and y”
The word “difference” means we have to do the subtraction and the statement “difference of x and y” means we have to subtract y from x so subtracting y from x we get,
$\Rightarrow x-y$
Now, in the above statement, we are asked write 3 times of the above difference in x and y meaning multiplying 3 to $\left( x-y \right)$ we get,
$3\left( x-y \right)$

Hence, the algebraic expression for the above statement is equal to:
$3\left( x-y \right)$

Note: In the above statement, when we have converted the difference of x and y into algebraic expression we have subtracted y from x but we can also subtract x from y so both the possibilities are there but subtract in such a way so that you will get the positive value out of subtraction. This kind of statement you can observe in the age related word problems so having a command on this statement conversion will ease your age related word problems.