Question

What expression could be used to represent "12 less than triple a number , x" ? Explain.

Answer 1

12-3x because 12 less than means 12- and tripe a number is 3x which is 12-3x or -3x+12

Answer 2

3x - 12

Triple a number would be 3x instead of x cubed as it is not asking for a number multiplied by itself three times.

-12 is the second half as since you don’t know whether or not the variable will be larger or smaller than the constant, it is safer to put it on the other half.

Thus, this equation fills in the worded format.

Hope this helps!