Trang is planting shrubs beside the highway for his job. He needs to plant 500 shrubs this week. He planted 84 shrubs on Monday, 92 shrubs on Tuesday, 87 shrubs on Wednesday, and 104 shrubs on Thursday. How many shrubs does Trang need to plant on Friday to finish the job?

Trang needs to plant 133 shrubs on Friday to finish the job.

Step-by-step explanation:

With the given data in the problem, we can set up an equation with a variable to solve for the number of shrubs that Trang will need to plant on Friday. Using a model:

M T W Th F Total

84 92 87 104? 500

Since we don't know the amount of shrubs on Friday, we can make this our variable 'x'. So, the following equation can be used to find 'x':

84 + 92 + 87 + 104 + x = 500

Combine like terms: 367 + x = 500

Subtract 367 from both sides: 367 + x - 367 = 500 - 367

Solve for 'x': x = 133, which is the number of shrubs that need to be planted on Friday to finish the job.