Final answer:
To find out how many pretzels Dolev had, you multiply the number of friends (5) by the number of pretzels each received (7), which equals 35 pretzels.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student asked: Dolev shared his pretzels equally among 5 friends. If each friend received 7 pretzels, how many pretzels did Dolev have? To solve this, we need to set up an equation. The variable, p, represents the number of pretzels. Since Dolev is sharing his pretzels equally, the operation needed in this equation is multiplication. We multiply the number of friends (5) by the number of pretzels each friend received (7) to find the total number of pretzels Dolev had.
The correct equation to solve this problem is p = 5 × 7. Multiplying 5 by 7 gives us 35, which means Dolev had 35 pretzels. Therefore, the correct answer to the problem is 35 pretzels (option b).