Three times a number plus 16

To solve this, we simply need to break down the words and turn each part into an equation.

"Three times"

This shows that we will be multiplying 3 and something.

3*

"a number"

This shows that the number we will be multiplying 3 by is "n," which represents a number.

3*n or 3n

"plus 16"

This shows we will be adding 16 to the rest of the equation.

3n+16

Using the logic above, we can see that the equation to represent this is 3n+16.