Negative five is greater than thirty less than six times a number
Write "-5" for "Negative five", "30" for "thirty", and "6" for "six"
-5 is greater than 30 less than 6 times a number.
Replace the words "is greater than" by ">"
-5 > 30 less than 6 times a number.
Replace the words "a number" by "x":
-5 > 30 less than 6 times x.
Replace the words "6 times x" by "6x"
-5 > 30 less than 6x.
The last step is tricky. Be careful
not to get it backwards:
To make something less,
you write it down and then subtract from it.
Therefore to make 6x less, you write 6x
down and then subtract 30 from it.
So we replace the words "30 less than 6x" by "6x - 30"
and we have
-5 > 6x - 30
Solve that and get
> x
which also can be written
x <
Edwin
