An office has 27 employees. If there are seven more women than men in the office, how many employees are men?

Answer

A

Explanation

Difficult: Easy
Category: Heart of Algebra/ System of Linear Equations
Strategic Advice: When a problem presents you with two "types" of information (for example, the total number of employees versus how many are men and how many are women), creating a system of equatios is usually is usually necessary. Set up two equations each with two unknowns using variables that make sense.
Getting to the Answer: There are 27 total employees at the office, all either men or women, so m (the number of men)+w (the number of women)=27. There are seven more women than men `w=m+7`. Subtsitute m+7 for w into the first equations.
`w+m=27`
`(m+7)+m=27`
`2m+7=27`
`2m=20`
`m=10`
The equations asks for the number of men (m) , so you're done! There are 10 men in the office.