Question

Carly tried to solve an equation step by step.

7a = 28
(Step 1) 7 = 4 (Step 2)
Find Carly's mistake.
A. Step 1
B. Step 2
C. Carly did not make a mistake.

Answer 1

Carly's mistake is in Step 2, where she incorrectly equated '7' to '4'. The correction involves dividing both sides of the equation by 7, which gives us the correct solution a = 4. This solution is verified by multiplying it by 7 to see if it matches the original equation.

Step-by-step explanation:

Carly made a mistake in the second step of solving the equation 7a = 28. In the first step, the equation is set up correctly. The second step should involve dividing both sides of the equation by 7. Instead of isolating the variable 'a' to find its value, the incorrect step that Carly took was assuming that '7' equals '4', which is a clear mistake.

1. To correct this, we need to eliminate terms by dividing both sides of the equation 7a = 28 by 7 to isolate 'a'.
2. Doing this gives us a = 28 / 7, which simplifies to a = 4 as the correct answer.
3. Next, we check to make sure this answer is reasonable. Multiplying 4 by 7 gives us 28, which matches the original equation, confirming that a = 4 is the correct solution.