We are given the phrase "The sum of 5 and a number results in 14." which suggest that we should find such a number. Let x be the number we are looking for, the phrase "The sum of 5 and a number" translates to the equation x+5,, since we are adding 5 to the number.
The part "results in 14" means that after adding 5, we end up having 14 as a result, this means we have
[tex]x+5=14[/tex]Now, we proceed to solve this equation for x by simply subtracting 5 on both sides. Once we do so, we get
[tex]x=14-5=9[/tex]so in this case the number we were looking for is x=9.