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EquationsFunctions
and Formulas
Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
6.5
Translating Words into
Algebraic Symbols
Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Translating Words into Algebraic Symbols
The ability to translate English words into algebra is very
important for solving “applied” problems.
To help you, we provide the following table of common
English words for the common mathematical symbols:
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Example 1
Translate into algebra: One number is four times another,
and their sum is twenty.
Let x = first number
4x = four times the number
x + 4x = their sum
Sentence in algebra: x + 4x = 20
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