4 plus what equals 16?

This is how to calculate "4 plus what equals 16?" In other words, 4 plus a number equals 16. What is that number? We start by converting this word problem into an equation where "what" is what we want to solve:

4 + what = 16

To solve this equation, we first add -4 to each side of the equal sign like this:

4 - 4 + what = 16 - 4

Then, we do the calculation to get the answer to "4 plus what equals 16?" as follows:

What = 12

The answer to "4 plus what equals 16?" is 12. You know this answer is correct because 4 plus 12 equals 16.

Plus What Equals Calculator
Here you can calculate a similar problem:

4 plus what equals 17?
Do you think you can solve a similar problem on your own? Try to figure out the next problem on our list and then go here to check the answer.