The fifth grade classes are taking a field trip to the planetarium next Wednesday Each of the seven classes have twenty-six students and 3 chaperones attending Determine the total number of people attending next week's field trip. Write an equation with the letter p to represent the unknown quantity and solve.

To determine the total number of people attending the field trip, let's break down the information and solve it step by step. ### **Given:** - **Number of classes:** 7 - **Students per class:** 26 - **Chaperones per class:** 3 ### **Step 1: Define the Unknown** Let \( p \) represent the **total number of people** attending the field trip. ### **Step 2: Calculate the Total People per Class** Each class has both students and chaperones. \[ \text{Total people per class} = \text{Number of students} + \text{Number of chaperones} = 26 + 3 = 29 \] ### **Step 3: Write the Equation** Since there are 7 classes, the total number of people \( p \) can be calculated by multiplying the total people per class by the number of classes. \[ p = \text{Number of classes} \times \text{Total people per class} \] \[ p = 7 \times 29 \] ### **Step 4: Solve the Equation** \[ p = 7 \times 29 = 203 \] ### **Answer:** The total number of people attending next week's field trip is **203**.