What is the expression 4 + 8(3x-1) - 7x when simplified? Apply the order of operations and communicative and distributive properties. Show all work.
To simplify the expression 4 + 8(3x-1) - 7x, we follow the order of operations and apply the communicative and distributive properties as necessary.
First, we apply the distributive property to the expression 8(3x-1):
8 * 3x = 24x
8 * (-1) = -8
Therefore, 8(3x-1) simplifies to 24x - 8.
Now, let's substitute this expression back into the original one:
4 + 24x - 8 - 7x
Next, we combine like terms:
(24x - 7x) + (4 - 8)
24x - 7x simplifies to 17x, and 4 - 8 simplifies to -4:
17x - 4
Therefore, the simplified expression is 17x - 4.