Question

Two students determined the value of this expression

these are the steps each student used




analyze the steps and describe any eras made by student p and student q

Answer 1

Student P made a mistake at step 1

Student Q made a mistake at step 3

Step-by-step explanation:

First, let's analyze what are the correct steps to find the value of the expression.

So, the first step is to apply the distributive property:

`\begin{gathered} -2.5(1.4+3.1)+6.9(-4.3) \\ -2.5(1.4)-2.5(3.1)+6.9(-4.3) \\ -3.5-7.75+6.9(-4.3) \end{gathered}`

Then, we need to solve the multiplication of the last term:

`-3.5-7.75-29.67`

Now, we can factorize the sign minus, but we will need to change the signs of all terms:

`-(3.5+7.75+29.67)`

Finally, we can add the term to get:

`\begin{gathered} -(40.92) \\ -40.92 \end{gathered}`

Therefore, the errors made by student P were at step 1, when this student applies the distributive property, he or she made a mistake with the sign of 7.75. This number should be negative. The next steps are correct by taking into account that the error was in the first step, the result will be wrong.

For student Q, we have that everything was correct until step 3, where he or she factorize the minus sign but he or she doesn't change the signs of all signs. After that, the procedure is correct but the answer will be wrong due to the mistake made at step 3.