"the product of four and a numer" means to multiply 4 times a number. Since we don't know what the number is, we'll use a variable, like 'n'. So, we now have: 4·n, or just 4n.
We now need to subtract 12 from this; so we get: 4n - 12.
"the product of four and a numer" means to multiply 4 times a number. Since we don't know what the number is, we'll use a variable, like 'n'. So, we now have: 4·n, or just 4n.
We now need to subtract 12 from this; so we get: 4n - 12.