Question 569371: I have to translate this sentence. Ryan's sister is 2 years less than twice his age. Ryan's sister is 14. How old is Ryan?
Answer by IWork4Dessert(60)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Let's first pick a person to be our variable; how about Ryan. Ryan will be "x".
Now, they're asking you to turn this sentence into an equation. Start by looking at the solid number that you already know: Ryan's sister is 14. So that will be the lonely number on one side of the equal sign. Now look at the first part of the sentence: Ryan's sister is 2 years less than twice his age. This means that twice Ryan's age(2x) minus two(2x-2) will be equal to Ryan's sister's age.
2x-2=14
Add 2 to both sides.
2x=16
Divide both sides by 2 to get the variable(letter) alone.
x=8
Ryan is 8 years old.
You don't even need to solve it, just have the equation, if you're "translating" it.
Another way to think about this is by breaking apart the sentence(if you put it into words, it would look something like "Ryan's sister=2(ryan)-2".
Hope this helps :)
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