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 Question from Perla: 1.A school district is proposing a 5% increase in the number of days in a school year. How long would a school year be with the proposed increase? 2. Keikio spent the day bird watching and counted 34 more birds in the morning than in the afternoon. If she counted a total of 76 birds, how many birds did she count in the afternoon?

Hi Perla,

1. If there are 200 days in the school year now how many will there be under the proposal? What if there are 210 days in the school year now? Can you use this to write an expression for the number of days under the proposal if there are x days in the school year now?

2. Here is a similar problem. I went shopping yesterday and today. Today I spent $15 dollars less than I spent yesterday. The total I spent in the two days was$115. How much did I spend yesterday?

To solve this I let let x be the amount I spent yesterday then I spent x - 15 today. Thus in total I spent x + (x - 15). Hence x + (x - 15) = 115. Solve for x.

Penny

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