A subtrahend is the number being subtracted in a subtraction problem. Robert misread the digit 1 in the ones place of the subtrahend as 7 and the digit 7 in the tens place of the subtrahend as 1. The difference in the subtraction then became 222. What would be the actual difference if he had read the numbers correctly?
Let the number being subtracted from be x
the error
x - 17 = 222
x = 222 + 17
x = 239
The number being subtracted from is 239
The real equation (Actual difference)
x - 71
239 - 71
= 168
To determine the actual difference, let's reverse engineer the steps taken by Robert and correct his misread digits in the subtrahend.
Let's assume the original subtrahend as "ab", where 'a' represents the digit in the tens place and 'b' represents the digit in the ones place.
According to the problem, Robert misread the digit '1' as '7' in the ones place, and the digit '7' as '1' in the tens place. Therefore, the misread subtrahend would be "a1" instead of "ab".
Now, let's calculate the difference using the misread subtrahend:
Original minuend: (x)
Original subtrahend: (ab)
Misread minuend: (x)
Misread subtrahend: (a1)
Difference: 222
We can write the subtraction equation as follows:
(x) - (a1) = 222
To find the actual difference, we need to correct the misread digits and solve the equation again.
Since Robert misread the digit '7' as '1' and the digit '1' as '7', we need to correct them in the equation:
(x) - (17) = 222
Now, we can solve for 'x'. Adding 17 to both sides of the equation:
(x) = 222 + 17
(x) = 239
Therefore, if Robert had read the numbers correctly, the actual difference would be 239.