Mrs. Nelson asked students in her class to translate the statement "Remy lost some of the $14 his mom gave him" into an algebraic expression. Four students' solutions are shown below.

Question

Alice: 14 - x
He had $14, then he lost (subtraction) an unknown amount (x).

Bobby: x - 14
He had an unknown amount of money (x) and he lost (Subtraction) $14.

Camila: 14 > x
He had $14 more than (>) the unknown amount (x) he lost.

Daniel: 14 < x
He had $14 less than (<) the unknown amount (x) he lost.

What student is correct?

Answer 1

Let's analyze the statement "Remy lost some of the $14 his mom gave him" carefully. The key points to understand are:

• Remy had $14.
• He lost some of this amount, which we can represent with a variable (let's call it \( x \)).
• The phrase "lost some" implies that we are subtracting an unknown amount \( x \) from the total amount Remy initially had.

Based on this understanding, we can translate it into an algebraic expression:

1. Start with the total amount: 14
2. Subtract the amount lost: \( x \)

So, the correct algebraic expression would be:

\[ 14 - x \]

Now let's evaluate each student's answer:

• Alice: 14 - x
  This is correct because it properly represents the situation where Remy starts with $14 and loses an unknown amount \( x \).

• Bobby: x - 14
  This is incorrect because it incorrectly suggests that Remy starts with an unknown amount \( x \) and subtracts $14.

• Camila: 14 > x
  This is incorrect because it tries to establish a comparison rather than translating the statement into an expression.

• Daniel: 14 < x
  This is also incorrect for the same reason as Camila; it sets up a comparison rather than an expression for Remy's money.

Thus, Alice is the only student who correctly translated the statement into an algebraic expression.