Question

A football player caught the ball and made a gain of 8 yards on the first play. On the next play the team lost 12 yards. How many yards do they need to gain on the next play to get back to their original position?

Answer 1

The answer would be 4 yards.The expression would be n+8-12 n could be any number so if it was 1 then it would be 1+8-12 which would be -3 you then should know that you would need to add 4 to -3 to make it to the original number which was 1.This works for any other number that you put for n

Answer 2

Draw a number line with 10 positives and 10 negatives. Count from 0 to 8. Now, from 8, count back 12 spots. From that spot, go back to 0, which is their original position. The number you counted there is your answer.