Question

How do you write “a number divided by $5$ “ as an algebraic expression?

Answer 1

Hint: Algebra is all about alphabets in place of the unknown numbers. So, the first thing that we need to do in this problem is to assume the unknown number to be an alphabet, let’s say x. then, as we are told that the number is divided by $5$ , so we divide x by $5$ and write $\dfrac{x}{5}$ .

Complete step by step solution:
Algebra is a part of mathematics where; we denote the unknown parameters by alphabets. We are given some properties or behaviour of the unknown parameters. We develop these properties in the form of some equations by taking the alphabet to be the unknown. After getting some equations, we solve them to find the value of the alphabet. Algebra has become a very important tool in today’s world. They are also used in some specific problem categories like the age problems, time and work problems and so on.
The given sentence reads as “a number divided by $5$ “. Here, nothing is mentioned as such of what is the “a number”. So, here is where algebra comes into play. We assume the “a number” to be the English alphabet “x”. It is further mentioned that the “a number” is divided by $5$ . But, as we have assumed the “a number” to be x, we write it as $\dfrac{x}{5}$ , which is the final algebraic expression as nothing is mentioned further about the operations on the number.
Therefore, we can conclude that the algebraic expression would be $\dfrac{x}{5}$ .

Note: The first doubt that students face in these types of expressions is which thing to be considered as x. So, it is always suggested we read the entire expression and then decide. Also, we must apply the operations carefully and sequentially or the expression gets wrong.