Each student at Madison middle school owns three spiral notebooks. Mrs. Campbell wants to calculate the total number of notebooks in the middle school. What variable is needed to calculate the total?

Question

A.
r, the number of students with red notebooks
B.
n, the number of spiral notebooks per student
C.
t, the number of teachers who have notebooks
D.
s, the number of students at the school

Answer 1

To calculate the total number of notebooks in Madison middle school, Mrs. Campbell needs to know the number of students (s) in the school, since each student owns three spiral notebooks. Therefore, the required variable to calculate the total number of notebooks is:

D. s, the number of students at the school.

The total number of notebooks can be calculated using the formula: Total notebooks = s (number of students) × 3 (notebooks per student).