The quotient of thirty and ten times a number. - Math Central

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Question from Jenna, a parent:

I need help on How to translate a phrase into an algebraic expression:
The quotient of thirty and ten times a number.

Hi Jenna,

I see this as

The quotient of (thirty) and (ten times a number)

and the quotient of a and b is a/b so this is

30/(10 × some number)

The convention in algebra is to use a letter for an unknown number so if I let z be the unknown number i get

The quotient of thirty and ten times a number.

to be

30/(10 × z)

I hope this helps,
Penny

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