Ugh. Can you help set up this math problem?

[Hot Lava Mama]

Can't figure this one out for the life of me. They give the answer, but don't show how to set up the problem. Can someone help me how to initially set this up:

 

Find the measure of an angle such that the difference between the measures of its supplement and three times its complement is 10(degress). The answer is 50(degrees)

 

My brain is frozen. I can't even back into the answer.

 

Math geniuses, can you help?

 

Thanks so much.

Hot Lava Mama

[jennynd]

Angle=x

 

180-x-(3*(90-x))=10

X=50

[Arcadia]

Find the measure of an angle such that the difference between the measures of its supplement and three times its complement is 10(degress). The answer is 50(degrees)

 

 

(180-A)-3(90-A)=10 where A is the unknown angle

 

-90+2A=10

2A=100

A= 50

 

Supplement is 180-A

Complement is 90-A

[creekland]

Let x be the angle.

 

The supplement is 180 - x.

 

The complement is 90 - x.

 

So (180 - x) - 3(90 - x) = 10 (no parentheses needed for the '180 - x,' I just added them to "see" it better.

 

180 - x -270 + 3x = 10

 

2x - 90 = 10

 

2x = 100

 

x = 50

 

;)

[Dana]

Find the measure of an angle such that the difference between the measures of its supplement and three times its complement is 10(degress). The answer is 50(degrees)

 

Everyone else has the work :)

 

One thing I strongly encourage my students to do is to write a translation with English some before going directly to the math. So a line I would use when explaining to my class before the work everyone above has written is...

 

(supplement) - 3(complement) = 10

 

It doesn't have any variables yet, but it does get the problem started.

Now the problem becomes recalling what's a supplement and what's a complement, but the first step with words really makes the next step much easier IMO.

[Hot Lava Mama]

Thank you very much. The funny thing is that I am usually very good at these. I actually even set up the problem right, as I discovered after everyone answered. I wasn't able to solve it, though! (OMG, that's the easy part!)

 

I only slept about 2 hours last night, so I think I just needed a reboot on my brain. I kept coming up with the 3 x 90 part as 180! That's why the answer wasn't coming out right! Ohhhhh, lovely sleep deprivation, how exciting!

 

Thanks so much for your help. You are wonderful!

:hurray:

Hot Lava Mama

[creekland]

Thank you very much. The funny thing is that I am usually very good at these. I actually even set up the problem right, as I discovered after everyone answered. I wasn't able to solve it, though! (OMG, that's the easy part!)

 

I only slept about 2 hours last night, so I think I just needed a reboot on my brain. I kept coming up with the 3 x 90 part as 180! That's why the answer wasn't coming out right! Ohhhhh, lovely sleep deprivation, how exciting!

 

Thanks so much for your help. You are wonderful!

:hurray:

Hot Lava Mama

 

 

We ALL get moments like that once in a while. ;) Personally, I can now blame it on old age. When I was younger, I used to have to make other excuses and those were harder to come up with. One of my favorite college professors called those (and dropped negatives and such things) "idiot errors" because "everyone from students to high level math folks can make them and they always make you feel like an idiot." I've adopted his phrase.

 

All that to say, don't feel "alone" as we all have our moments.