Question

At the family reunion there were 15 more family members there this year than at the last family reunion. There were 46 people at this year’s family reunion. How many family members came to the last family reunion?

Write a paragraph explaining what strategy or strategies could be used to solve this problem. Be sure to include a way in which a variable equation could be implemented

Answer 1

One way to solve this problem is to use algebraic equations. Let's assume that the number of family members at the last family reunion is represented by the variable "x." Since there were 15 more family members this year than last year, we can set up the equation x + 15 = 46. By subtracting 15 from both sides, we can isolate the variable x, revealing that x = 31. Therefore, there were 31 family members at the last family reunion. This strategy of creating a variable equation allows us to translate the problem statement into a mathematical expression and solve for the unknown quantity.