A deep-sea diver must move up or down in the water in short steps to keep from getting a physical condition called the "bends." Suppose a diver moves down from the surface in two steps of 25 feet each. Represent his total movement as a product of signed numbers and find the total depth.
not a product but a sum
if down distance is negative then (-25) + ( -25 )= -50
By the way it is the ascent, not the decent, where you make decompression stops. The bends are due to high pressure air being absorbed in your body at depth. As you rise that air in your body expands and you have to give it time to percolate out of your organs or you will be hurt.
To represent the diver's total movement as a product of signed numbers, we can assign positive numbers to indicate descending (moving downward) and negative numbers to indicate ascending (moving upward).
In this case, moving down from the surface in two steps of 25 feet each can be represented as:
(+25 feet) * (+25 feet)
This means that the diver has moved down by 25 feet in the first step and then an additional 25 feet in the second step.
To find the total depth, we simply add the two steps together:
(+25 feet) + (+25 feet) = +50 feet
Therefore, the total depth the diver has reached is 50 feet below the surface.