Niel has a bucket of beads. He uses them to make 8 identical necklaces and then buys 25 beads at the store. He ends up with a total of 500 beads. How many did he start with? Identify the operations needed to solve this problem using the equation b/8 + 25 = 500

A) add and multiply
B) sub and multiply
C) add and divide
D) sub and divide

C) add and divide

The correct operations needed to solve this problem using the equation b/8 + 25 = 500 are:

C) add and divide.

The correct operations needed to solve this problem using the equation b/8 + 25 = 500 are C) add and divide.

To understand why, let's break down the equation and the problem.

The variable "b" represents the number of beads that Niel started with. We need to determine the value of "b".

The equation b/8 + 25 = 500 can be interpreted as follows:
1. Niel initially had "b" beads.
2. He used these beads to make 8 identical necklaces, which means he used b/8 beads for each necklace.
3. After making the necklaces, Niel went to the store and bought 25 more beads.
4. Altogether, Niel ended up with a total of 500 beads.

Now, to determine the value of "b", we need to isolate it on one side of the equation. The steps to solve the equation are as follows:

1. Subtract 25 from both sides of the equation to get b/8 = 475.
(This is done to remove the 25 beads that Niel bought.)

2. Multiply both sides of the equation by 8 to get b = 3800.
(This is done to undo the division by 8, in order to find the value of "b".)

Therefore, the correct operations needed to solve this problem using the equation b/8 + 25 = 500 are C) add and divide.