Question

A. Jill solved the equation incorrectly and her work is shown below. 6(5 – 3n) = -30 - 3n Step 1: 30 - 18n = - 30 - 3n Step 2: - 15n = 0 Step 3: n = 0 Explain the error Jill made in her solution.

Answer 1

Solving an equation

Step 1

We want to take the parenthesis out, in order to do that we use the distributive property: we multiply by each term inside the parenthesis

6(5 - 3n) = 6 · 5 + 6 · (-3n)

= 30 - 18