Brad takes the bus to work. When he gets off at the bus station, on the ground level, he has to take the elevator down 3 floors and then take another elevator up 16 floors to his office. What is Brad's net gain in floors from where he got off the bus to his office?

4 answers

down 3 , then up 16 ... - 3 + 16 = ?
Even though you were being quite annoying ('please'; 'pleeease'), I'm willing to give you a full solution. Please note that I'd like you to learn from this solution, and grow as a mathematics student. Thanks for understanding.

Let b be a variable which represents Brad's floor at the beginning of the problem. First, when he takes the elevator down three floors, our expression denoting Brad's current floor is now b-3. When he goes up 16 floors to his office, our expresion becomes (b-3)+16. This simplifies to b+13, so our answer is THIRTEEN.
Brad takes the bus to work. When he gets off at the bus station, on the ground level, he has to take the elevator down 2 floors and then take another elevator up 14 floors to his office. What is Brad's net gain in floors from where he got off the bus to his office?
14
2 floors down equals-2.
Sixteen fooors up equals 16.
Now, to find the net gain, add the smaller number to the larger number.
16+(-2)= 14