Objectives 

• Identifying the Relevant Variables

• Constructing Equations 

• Solving Equations and Checking Solutions

Examples

• Example 1

• Example 2

• Example 3

• Example 4

Many real world problems present situations in which a number of quantities are inter-related. 

One of the mathematician's goals is to translate these inter-relationships into variable expressions and equations. 

We can now handle application problems whose structure yields a linear equation.

Our main goal in this section is to construct an equation which describes the relationships among the relevant quantities in a given problem.

In this section your success in solving a problem depends on your ability to construct an appropriate linear equation, i.e.,  an equation of the form 



For now, you should make sure that you construct an equation which contains only one variable. This will make for a less complicated problem solution.