Remember the order of operations.
What operations do less than and the product of represent?
A
Practice makes perfect
We are asked to write an algebraic expression for the given verbal expression.
2 less than the product of 3 and a number x
The key phrases are less than and the product 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 the product of ... and ....
... *...
The two terms that we are multiplying together are 3 and an arbitrary number x. Since 3 comes first in the verbal expression, it should be on the left-hand side of the multiplication.
& the product of 3 and x
& 3 * x
Also, when multiplying a number by a variable, we can omit the multiplication sign giving us 3x. Finally, we have the second key phrase, ... less than .... This indicates that we should decrease one term by the other using subtraction.
&... - ...
The two terms of the subtraction are 3x and 2. We are decreasing the term 3x by the other term, so it should be written first in the subtraction.
& 2 less than 3x
& 3x - 2
This corresponds to option A.
