By Ron Liskey | Earth Date: January 7, 2021 CE
Can you convert this word problem into an easy-to-solve algebraic equation?
If 20 is added to $\dfrac{1}{3}$ of a number, the result will be double the original number.
What is the original number?
Think of double the number as $\dfrac{6}{3}$ of the number.
Create an equation, using n for the original number. Then solve for n: $$\begin{aligned} {\color{red}{\textit{[n divided by 3]}}} \textit{ plus 20 } &= \color{teal}{\textit{[n times 2]}} \\ {\color{red}{\dfrac{n}{3}}} + 20 &= \color{teal}{2n}\end{aligned}$$ The original number is 12.