Expert: Scott A Wilson - 10/21/2009

Question
please bear with me, i' a slow typist


M is 8 more than a second number. which of the following represents the second number.

A)M-11   B)M-8   C)M+8     D)M+17  i'm told the answer is (C) but i don"t understand how or why.

1)can you explain in baby language what is the significance of stating M is 8 more than a second number vs M is 8 more than a number?

2)how does M+8 represent a second number when M+8 doesn't/ can't equal a second number.

am i missing something?  please help me to connect to understanding these type of problems and can you point in the direction to practice more problem like this.

i'm sorry to burden with all this at one time ,but i think once i understand the nuance of this this smooth sailing.  

Answer
B, since M is 8 more, the second number is M-8.

1) If you had 5 and you had one more than your friend, it can be seen your friend had 4.

If you had 7 items and you had one more than your friend, it can be seen your friend had 6.

So if you had M items and you had one more than your friend, it can be seen your friend had M-1.

So if you had M items and you had two more than your friend, it can be seen your friend has M-2.

So if you had M items and you had 8 more than your friend, it can be seen your friend has M-8.

2) It states that the 2nd person has M+8 items.  This means the 1st person has M items.

It could also state that the 1st person had M+8 items.
That would mean that the 2nd person had M items.

If it state the one person had 8 more than another and the other had M,
we could say that if one person has M, then the other person has 8.

Thank you for the wonderful question.  The first thing to do is realize that most of the time when you have a question about something, there are probably several other people in the class with the same question.  You'd be the one brave enough to ask it.