Question

Angelique had 20 tokens to use for games at the arcade. She lost some of them. Her dad tripled the tokens she had left. Angelique wrote the expression 3(20−t) to find the number of tokens she has now, where t is the number of tokens she lost. Dante correctly wrote another expression, 60−3t, to find the number of tokens Angelique has now. Use the drop-down menus to explain what each part of Angelique's and Dante's expressions mean.

Answer 1

Total number of tokens Angelique had = 20 tokens.

Let us assume she lost t tokens.

Number of tokens she left  = Total tokens - number of lost tokens = 20-t.

Her father triple the remaining tokens.

Total number of tokens after tripling reaming tokens = 3 times remaining tokens = 3(20-t).

If we distribute 3 over (20-t) we get 60-3t.

Let us define each part of Angelique expression 3(20-t).

3(20-t) is the three time (or tripling of) remaining (20-t) tokens. Where t is the number of lost tokens and 20 is the total number of tokens.

60-3t is the three time of total tokens minus three times of number of lost tokens t.

Answer 2

Angelique's Expression: 3(20 - t)

3: triples Angelique's tokens

20: number of tokens Angelique starts with

t: number of tokens Angelique lost

20 - t: number of tokens Angelique has after she loses some

Dante's Expression: 60 - 3t

60: three times the number of tokens Angelique starts with

t: number of tokens Angelique lost

3t: three times the number of tokens Angelique lost

60 - 3t: number of tokens Angelique has after her dad triples them