Why can a variable be used to represent a number

Mr. brettler is hanging up a 5-foot tall rectangular welcome sign in the gym. he has drawn a sketch on a coordinate grid. he has the lower vertices of the sign at (9, –3) and (–6, –3). where would the upper vertices be on the grid?

Abag contains 10 white golf balls and 6 striped golf balls. a golfer wants to add 112 golf balls to the bag. he wants the ratio of white to striped gold balls to remain the same. how many of each should he add?

Jim had 3,067.48 in his checking account he wrote a check to pay for two airplane tickets. his account now has 1,845.24.