At practice, Carlos eats half as many apples as Alex, and also eats 2 tangerines. He eats 4 pieces of fruit in total. The equation 0.5x + 2 = 4 describes this situation. What does the variable represent?

Step-by-step explanation:

In this scenario, the variable x represents the total number of apples that Alex has eaten. Since Carlos has eaten half as many apples as Alex this would be represented as 0.5 and is why it is being multiplied by the variable x. The 2 in this scenario represents the tangerines that Carlos has also eaten, while the 4 represents the total number of fruits that Carlos has eaten.