Question

Austin is watching a football game.His team loses 9 yards and then gains 5 yards.He doesn't watch the next play,but afterwards he sees that his team now has a total loss of 1 yard.How many yards did the team gain or lose on the play Austin missed?

Answer 1

the team starts of with: -9 yards
then they gain 5 yards, so you have to -9 + 5 = - 4

Total : -1 yards
-4 + ? = -1
-4 + 3 = -1

The answer is...
The team gained 3 yards

Answer 2

The team gain 3 yards on the play Austin missed.

Explanation:

Independent of the starting point, the team loses 9 yards in the first play

First play position = -9 yards

In the second , they recover 5 yards so their current position is

Second play position = -9 + 5 = -4 yards.

Now lets define x as:

x: Number of yards gained/lost in the third play

Using the information given we know that

Third play position = -4 + x where Third play position = -1

so -4 + x =-1

x= 4-1 = 3 yards gain.