What minus What equal 200

Frank

New member
Hello, everyone:

Is it correct to ask the three questions below?

1. What number minus what number equals 200 ?
2. What two numbers subtracted from each other equals 200 ?
3. The subtraction of what two numbers equals 200 ?

A. 200 - 5
B. 205 - 5
C. 210 - 5

I need an answer kindly

Thank you.
 

Frank

New member
You can workout such problematic math problems by using what minus what equals calculator . Otherwise i can also add that
(2) and (3) are both problematic for the same reason -- they don't indicate the directionality of the subtraction. Given two numbers, there is not "a subtraction" of those two numbers -- there is the subtraction of the first from the second, and that of the second from the first. Because subtraction is not commutative, the differences (results of subtraction) are different.

In (2), you refer to two numbers "subtracted from each other," but that's wrong -- only one gets subtracted from the other. You don't subtract each number from the other, which is how this sounds. If it were correct, though, the rest should say "equal" rather than "equals" because the subject ("numbers") is plural.
 
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