5 plus what equals 17?

This is how to calculate "5 plus what equals 17?" In other words, 5 plus a number equals 17. What is that number? We start by converting this word problem into an equation where "what" is what we want to solve:

5 + what = 17

To solve this equation, we first add -5 to each side of the equal sign like this:

5 - 5 + what = 17 - 5

Then, we do the calculation to get the answer to "5 plus what equals 17?" as follows:

What = 12

The answer to "5 plus what equals 17?" is 12. You know this answer is correct because 5 plus 12 equals 17.

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

5 plus what equals 18?
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.