Arestaurant serves 42 chicken dinners and 18 steak dinners. let m be the difference between the numbers of chicken and steak dinners.
a. draw a picture you could use to find m.
b. what is the value of m.

A. You could draw 42 chicken dinners and 18 steak dinners with a minus sign in between. Then an equal sign and the 42 chicken dinners with 18 crossed out.
b. 42-m=18, or m+18=42, or most simply 42-18=m or 24.