Since there were x cupcakes at the beginning of a party and at the end of the party, 16 of them had been eaten, the expression for the number of cupcakes that were left will be gotten by subtracting the number of cupcake that have been eaten from the cupcakes at the beginning. This will be:
= x - 16
For example, if there were 20 cupcakes at the beginning and 16 was eaten, the number left will be:
