YEAR 8 BACK-TRACKING: Worked Examples

Problem:

(97)
__ x 4 __ + 7 __ x 2 __ - 13 __ . What is the starting number?

Method 1.

As we arrived at 97 by subtracting 13 from the previous number, then the previous number
would be 13 larger than 97 (97 + 13 = 110.)
The number 110 resulted by multiplying another number by 2, so we will find that previous
number by dividing by 2 (110/2 = 55.)
55 was arrived at by adding 7 to a previous number, so we will find that previous number by
subtracting 7 from 55 (55 – 7 = 48.)
Finally 48 was arrived at by multiplying the starting number by 4. So the starting number will
be discovered by dividing 48 by 4 ( 48/4 = 12.)

Method 2.

(97)
__ x 4 __ + 7 __ x 2 __ - 13 __ .

If we call the starting number n, we can create an algebraic equation from the backtracking
problem to eventually calculate n’s value.
Firstly,
n x 4 = 4n,
then we will have 4n + 7,
then, (4n + 7) x 2 or 2(4n + 7),
which equals 8n + 14,
for the next step, we subtract 13 from 8n + 14 (8n + 14 – 13 = 8n + 1,
So, finally, we get 8n + 1 = 97,
Subtracting 1 from each side of the equation we arrive at 8n = 96,
8n = 96 can be rewritten as n = 96/8 = 12
Or the whole expression could be divided by 8; 8n/8 = 96/8 which leads again to n = 12.