Question

some students equally share 7 baskets of pears. each basket has 11 pears. write an algebraic expression to represent this situation. then explain how you choose which variable and operations to use.

(options partially visible:
a. the letter s is used because \students\ begins with s. the words \share\ and \equally\ represent division. multiply to find the total number of pears shared.
c. the letter s is used because \students\ begins with s. the words \share\ and \equally\ represent division. add to find the total number of pears shared.
d. the letter s is used because \students\ begins with s. the word \share\ represents addition and the word \equally\...
click to select your answer and then click check answer.)

Explanation:

Step1: Find total number of pears

First, calculate the total number of pears. There are 7 baskets, each with 11 pears, so total pears = \(7\times11\).

Step2: Define variable for students

Let \(s\) be the number of students (since "students" starts with \(s\)).

Step3: Form algebraic expression

Since the pears are shared equally among \(s\) students, the expression for pears per student is \(\frac{7\times11}{s}\) (or \(\frac{77}{s}\)), as "share equally" implies division of total pears by number of students. The variable \(s\) is chosen because "students" begins with \(s\), "share" and "equally" represent division, and we first find total pears (\(7\times11\)) to share.

Answer:

The algebraic expression is \(\frac{7\times11}{s}\) (or \(\frac{77}{s}\)), where \(s\) is the number of students. The variable \(s\) is used because "students" starts with \(s\), "share" and "equally" represent division, and we multiply \(7\) (baskets) and \(11\) (pears per basket) to find total pears before dividing by the number of students.