On the first day, a company has 64 orders for shipping crates on backorder. Every day customers order 18 more shipping crates. If the company employees work overtime and make 28 shipping crates every day, how many crates will be on backorder on the fifth day? A. 24 B. 14 C. 34 D. 16

The correct answer is:

B. 14

Explanation:

Let x be the number of days. On day 1, we begin with 64 orders. We gain 18 orders per day; this is 18x, and gives us

64+18x.

We also make 28 crates per day, which decreases the number of crates we need by 28 per day; this is - 28x, and gives us

64+18x-28x

Combining like terms, we get

64-10x

For day 5, we replace x with 5:

64-10 (5) = 64-50 = 14