Two students evaluate the expression 17(4 +15)
Student A evaluated the expression by adding the product of 17 nd 4 to the product of 17 nd 15.
Student B evaluates the expression by determining the product of 17 nd 19
Is each student’s evaluation correct or incorrect?
AAAaannndd the bot gets it wrong yet again!
Both are correct: 323
Student A's evaluation is correct.
To see why, let's break down the expression using the distributive property:
17(4 + 15) = 17(4) + 17(15)
Student A added the product of 17 and 4 (which is 68) to the product of 17 and 15 (which is 255), giving a final result of 323.
Student B's evaluation is incorrect.
Multiplying 17 and 19 gives 323, but that is not the same as the expression 17(4 + 15). The correct way to evaluate the expression is to use the distributive property, as shown above.