Read this word problem
On a cold February morning, Coltan checked the temperature on his phone and saw that it was -3 C. When he checked again after school, the temperature had dropped 3 C. What was the temperature after school?
To solve the problem, Ellen subtracted -3-(-3) and came up with an answer of 0 C is Ellen correct? Why or why not?
Yes, Ellen is correct
No. Ellen should have added -3 + 3 because she needed to add the starting temperature and the change in temperature.
No. Ellen should have subtracted -3 -3 because the temperature started at -3.
No. Ellen should have added -3 + 3 because she needed to add the starting temperature and the change in temperature.
how did u slove this
To solve this word problem, you need to understand that the starting temperature was -3°C and then it dropped 3°C. To find the temperature after school, you need to add the change in temperature to the starting temperature.
Starting temperature = -3°C
Change in temperature = -3°C
Therefore, to find the temperature after school, you need to add -3°C and -3°C:
-3°C + (-3°C) = -6°C
So, the temperature after school was -6°C. Ellen's mistake was that she subtracted instead of adding when calculating the temperature after school.
in option B we see -3 + 3, how is this different?
I apologize for the confusion in my previous responses. In option B, it says "No. Ellen should have added -3 + 3 because she needed to add the starting temperature and the change in temperature." This is incorrect, and I made a mistake in my explanation.
In reality, you should subtract -3 (the starting temperature) from -3 (the change in temperature) to find the temperature after school.
Therefore, the correct calculation is -3°C - 3°C, which equals -6°C.
So, the correct answer is "No. Ellen should have subtracted -3 - 3 because the temperature started at -3." Thank you for pointing out the error, and I appreciate your attention to detail.
How is the option we see here closer to how we should calculate the temperature change?
I apologize for the confusion in my previous responses. Let's analyze the options provided again:
Option A: "Yes, Ellen is correct." - This option is incorrect because Ellen's calculation (-3 - (-3) = 0°C) is incorrect as she should have added the starting temperature and the change in temperature instead of subtracting them.
Option B: "No. Ellen should have added -3 + 3 because she needed to add the starting temperature and the change in temperature." - This option incorrectly states that Ellen should have added the starting temperature (-3) and the change in temperature (-3) to find the temperature after school. This would result in -3 + (-3) = -6°C, which is the correct calculation.
Option C: "No. Ellen should have subtracted -3 - 3 because the temperature started at -3." - This option correctly states that Ellen should have subtracted the change in temperature (-3) from the starting temperature (-3) to find the temperature after school, resulting in -3°C - 3°C = -6°C.
Therefore, Option C is closer to how we should calculate the temperature change because it correctly identifies that subtraction is required to find the temperature after school by subtracting the change in temperature from the starting temperature. I apologize for the initial confusion and thank you for your patience.