each person in the u.s. produces approximately 3.5 pounds of trash each day. write an expression representing the pounds of trash produce in a day by a family that has x members.
please help me thans so much
2007-01-11 05:16:16 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
3,5 x
Think about it. If there's one person in the family, they produce 3.5 lbs of trash.
If there's two people they produce 3.5 x 2 = 7 lbs trash
If there's three people they produce 3.5 x 3 = 10.5 lobs of trash.
So in general, x people produce 3.5x pounds of trash.
This is an example of how using letters like x and y make a problem seem a lot harder than it is. This is why I always recommend my students use letters that stand for what they mean, or even whole words if that helps.
For example, I'd suggest you let p = number of people in the family. Then 3.5 p is the amount of trash produced by that family.
Some people even have trouble with this, so for them I recommend using entire words for variable names, as in some high level programming languages.
Thus
Amount = 3.5 x People
where Amount = number of pounds of trash produced daily and
People = number of people in family.
PS -- as an ecologically conscious person I aim to produce a bit less trash than that, as I hope many people do.
2007-01-11 05:19:27 · answer #1 · answered by Joni DaNerd 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If each person in the family produces 3.5 lbs. of trash a day and the number of people in the family is represented by x, then the amount of trash produced by the family in a day is 3.5x lbs. If x is 4, then the family produces 14 lbs. of trash per day.
2007-01-11 13:22:13 · answer #2 · answered by billyshears 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
each member produces 3.5 pounds
so x members produce 3.5x pounds
2007-01-11 13:19:45 · answer #3 · answered by rahul m 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
t=3.5x
where t is pounds of trash.
2007-01-11 13:58:48 · answer #4 · answered by yupchagee 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
T(trash) = 3.5x
You may be over thinking this.
2007-01-11 13:20:26 · answer #5 · answered by rezzythepinnacle 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
daily trash=3.5x
2007-01-11 13:22:08 · answer #6 · answered by adriantheace 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
(3.5 *US population) divided by (number of families * x)
Unit- lbs
2007-01-11 13:24:09 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
one person * 3.5p = 3.5p
a refers to the unknown no. of the members
a*3.5 = 3.5 (maybe)
(a*3.5)/3.5 = 3.5 /3.5
a = 1
i hope it is right ! :)
2007-01-11 13:33:20 · answer #8 · answered by angel_ eyes 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋