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Question 542437: what is the equation of the problem, the square root of the sum of the square of a number increased by 5 added to the number is equal to 5
Answer by Theo(13342)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! i would interpret this as follows:
the square root of
the sum of the square of a number increased by
5 added to the number
is equal to 5.
in that case,the equation would be:
sqrt(x^2 + x + 5) = 5
i could be wrong because interpretations are sometimes ambiguous, but it makes sense to interpret it this way.
"the sum of" is usually followed by an expression.
"increased by" is usually followed by an expression.
if i were to put parentheses around the parts that would be interpreted as being the same expression, then i would do the following:
the square root of the sum of (the square of a number increased by) (5 added to the number) is equal to 5
it's always difficult to determine what is meant and, in real life, you would simply question the person making the request in order to get clarification as to what is meant by the statement.
in algebra class, you would need to go by the rules established by your instructor or textbook.
there are key words that you look for.
here a link that provides some insight into the keywords.
http://www.purplemath.com/modules/translat.htm
i might also have interpreted this statement as:
the square root of (the sum of the square of a number increased by 5) (added to the number) is equal to 5
in that case, the equation would be:
sqrt(x^2 + 5) + x = 5
it becomes a matter of interpretation whether the "increased by" includes the "added to" or not.
a comma would have clarified the original statement better, such as:
the square root of the sum of the square of a number, increased by 5 added to the number, is equal to 5
in that case, the original interpretation would be correct.
or:
the square root of the sum of the square of a number increased by, 5 added to the number, is equal to 5.
in that case, the second interpretation would be correct.
as the original statement stands, you would interpret it either way.
check with what you instructor has told you and what your text has told you to see if you can determine the correct interpretation for this statement.
i went with interpretation number 1 because it just seemed to be grammatically more correct after i added the comma. the second interpretation would have been more clumsily written.
that's the nature of the beast.
this one is ambiguous and therefore difficult to nail down exactly.
i leaned towards interpretation number 1 but could have just as easily went with interpretation number 2.
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