Question

A student attempted to generate an equivalent expression using the distributive property, as shown below: 7(y − 5) = y − 35 What was the mistake made?

Answer 1

You have to distribute the 7 to the y also. So the new equation should be 7y-35. When using the distributive property you are supposed to distribute the number outside of the parentheses to every number inside of the parentheses.

Answer 2

The mistake that has been made is when you distribute the 7 to -5 and y on the left side of the equation it ends up being 7y-35, but 7y is not equivalent to y.