Translating Slowly Examples

Liana has 7 times as many chocolate bars as her friend Beth. Liana may be happy about that right now, but we'll come back to her after her third heart attack. Express the number of chocolate bars Liana has in terms of the number of chocolate bars Beth has.

We don't need to go straight to a symbolic statement. We can go a little bit at a time.

First, we translate operations into symbols. The number of chocolate bars Liana has is:

7 × (the number of chocolate bars Beth has)

Then, we translate the remaining words into symbols. Let B be the number of chocolate bars Beth has. (Here, the B can stand for "Beth," "Bars," or "Blood Sugar.") Then Liana has:

7 × B chocolate bars

Felicity has some cookies, and Liana has four times as many cookies. Apparently, Liana has polished off all those candy bars and still isn't full. Goodness gracious, Liana, eat an apple.

Express the number of cookies Liana has in terms of the number of cookies Felicity has.

Let F (or some other variable, but F makes the most sense) be the number of cookies Felicity has. Then the number of cookies Liana has is 4F.

The length of a bed is two feet longer than its width. In terms of its width, how long is the bed?

Let w be the width of the bed. Then the length of the bed is w + 2. Hey, as long as our feet aren't hanging out over the edge, we'll be happy.

Jonathan is three inches shorter than Jules. Jules is two inches shorter than Justin. How tall is Jonathan in relation to Justin?

Let J be Justin's height. Yeah, this problem threw us a curveball: all three guys have names that start with "J." Thanks a lot. We'll just need to be extra vigilant and not forget that it's Justin who's our "J." Now that we have that settled, we can say that Jules is J – 2 inches, and Jonathan is (J – 2) – 3 inches. To keep them straight in the future, we'll refer to them as Big J, Middle J, and Little J. We're sure Jonathan is secure enough to handle it.

What is the total area covered by the shape shown below (in terms of s)?

It's , or any equivalent expression.

Linda divides a pie equally between herself, her two kids, and three of their friends. She won't even come close to dividing the ice cream evenly, but that's another story for another day. What fraction of the pie does each person get?

Divide 1 pie between Linda, 2 kids, and 3 friends to get , or any equivalent expression.