Arrange the digits 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 in the blanks to maximize the
product.
___ ____ ____ x ____ ____
To maximize the product, the larger digits should be placed in the higher place values.
The given digits are 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.
Now, let's analyze the expression:
___ ____ ____ x ____ ____
To maximize the product, we want the highest possible digit in the leftmost blank and the second-highest digit in the second leftmost blank.
To do this, we can rearrange the digits in descending order. The highest digit is 9, the second-highest digit is 8, and so on.
Now let's fill in the blanks:
9 8 ____ x ____ ____
Next, we want the digit with the next highest value, which is 7, in the third place from the left:
9 8 7 x ____ ____
Finally, the remaining two digits are 6 and 5, and they can be placed in any order:
9 8 7 x 6 5
So, to maximize the product, the digits should be arranged as 9 8 7 x 6 5.