The teacher distributes 5 pencils per student. Can you tell how many pencils are needed, given the number of students? (Use $ s $ for the number of students.)

Given:

The teacher distributes 5 pencils per student. 

To do:

We have to find the rule which gives the number of pencils needed, given the number of students.

Solution:

Let the number of students be $s$.

The number of pencils per student $=5$. 

This implies,

The total number of pencils needed $=$ Number of pencils per student $\times$ Number of students.

$=5\times s$

$=5s$.

Therefore, the required rule for the total number of pencils needed, given the number of students is $5s$.