Remember the order of operations.
What operation do less than and of represent?
3/7y-4
Practice makes perfect
We are asked to make an algebraic expression for the given verbal expression. The key phrases are less than and of.
They indicate subtraction and multiplication, respectively. When we have an expression that contains both subtraction and multiplication, we should start with multiplication according to the order of operations. Let's first rewrite ... of ....
... *...
The two terms that we are multiplying together are 37 and an arbitrary number y. Since 37 comes first in the verbal expression, it should be on the left-hand side of the multiplication.
three sevenths & of y
3/7 * y&
Also, when multiplying a number by a variable, we can omit the multiplication sign giving us 37y. Finally, we have the second key phrase, ... less than .... This indicates that we should decrease one term by the other using subtraction.
... - ...
The two quantities that we are subtracting are 37y and 4. We are decreasing the term 37y by the other term, so it should be written first in the subtraction.
4 less than three sevenths of y
3/7y - 4
Note that this is only one of multiple ways to algebraically express the given verbal expression.
