Question

At the family reunion there were 15 more family members there this year than at the last family reunion. There were 46 people at this year’s family reunion. How many family members came to the last family reunion? Write a paragraph explaining what strategy or strategies could be used to solve this problem. Be sure to include a way in which a variable equation could be implemented:

Answer 1

31 people came last year, I know this because I removed 15 from 46 which equals to 31. This can be done in many ways either by subtraction or by finding the value of x. So, we all know that 31+x = 46 to find the value of x we have to add 15. So, 31+15 = 46 therefore the answer is 31 people came last year.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

The equation would be x+15=46. I came up with this equation because we are given the total number of people at the reunion this year and we know how many more people are here this year than last year. The unknown is the number of people last year. That is why x would represent the number of people at the reunion last year because that is the unknown. If we add 15 to the number of people last year, it will give us 46( the number of people at the reunion this year).
To find x, we just use opposite operation to get the answer. Opposite of addition is subtraction so, we subtract the number of more people and the reunion this year from the total number of people at the reunion to get the unknown number of people at the reunion last year. 46-15 is 31. Therefore we know that 31 people were at the reunion last year