What is the difference between eight times a number and twice the number is eighteen?

Answer 1

It's an example of converting something easy into something nearly impossible, and then

expressing it obscurely.

Behind the veil lies an almost trivial algebra exercise. Although the question doesn't ask for

the solution to the exercise, here it is anyway, at no extra cost:

-- The difference between (eight times a number) and (twice the number) is (six times the number).

-- (Six times the number) is eighteen.

-- (the number) is one-sixth of eighteen, or three.