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# Constructing numerical expressions

Sal solves a word problem by constructing a numerical expression.  Created by Sal Khan.
Video transcript
Alan found 4 marbles to add to his 5 marbles currently in his pocket. He then had a competition with his friends and tripled his marbles. Write a numerical expression to model the situation without performing any operations. So let's think about what's going on. So he already had 5 marbles in his pocket. And then he found 4 more marbles to add to that. So we can add the 4 marbles to the 5 marbles. So 4 marbles plus the 5 marbles. So that's what happens after the first sentence. He found 4 marbles to add to his 5 marbles currently in his pocket. He then had a competition with his friends and tripled his marbles. So this is how many marbles he had before tripling. And now he's tripling his marbles. So we want to multiply 3 times the total number of marbles he has now-- times 4 plus 5. So this right over here is the numerical expression that models the situation without performing any operations. We, of course, could then actually calculate this. He has 9 marbles before tripling. And then you multiply it by 3 and he has 27. But this is what they're asking for. They want us to write this expression.