Question 85083: Write the following phrase using symbols.
The quotient of p minus q, divided by 5
Would the answer be p-q/5? Answer by bucky(2189) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! The quotient of p minus q, divided by 5
.
You have to be careful with this one. It can be interpreted is several ways.
.
For example, it could be p minus the quantity q/5.
.
And it also could be interpreted as the quantity p minus q and that quantity is divided
by 5.
.
If it were written in your book as:
.
p - q ÷ 5
.
Then the answer would be based on the fact that the first thing you do from right to left is
the multiplications and divisions in sequence, then you go back and do the additions and
subtractions from left to right.
.
In this case the answer would be to first divide q by 5 then go back and subtract that
quantity from p. This would lead to the answer:
.
.
which is the way you wrote your answer ... p - q/5.
.
But if the book wrote it as:
.
(p - q)÷5 or (p - q)/5
.
then the answer would be:
.
.
The wording that you used ... quotient of p - q, divided by 5 ... I would interpret that
as take p - q first, then divide that by 5 to get:
.
.
Hopefully, this gives you an idea of how important it is to clearly state the problem.
I suspect that tutors on this site skip over a lot of problems that are not clearly
written or are written in such a way as there is a question as to what the exact problem
is. No sense in wasting time on working the wrong problem. So feel free to use words
such as the quantity (....) to clearly identify what is to be grouped together and use
parentheses for the same purpose ... to lump things together.
.
Hope this helps you to understand the importance of what you are being taught by this problem.
(