Step-by-step explanation:
Take your clues from the question itself.
"5 less than," tells you that you're going to have "minus 5" AFTER something else.
"Product" always means multiplication. "Unknown number" is your variable. (Usually x or n.) So "the product of 7 and an unknown number" means "7 times x." Or just "7x."
And of course, you know what "is equal to 42" means. ;-)
Now put it all together.
I know that my "minus 5" has to go second. And I know that my "is equal to" has to go last. So the "product" part has to go first.
The product of 7 and a number minus 5 is equal to 42.
7x - 5 = 42
I hope that helps!
