Janice wants to know the total number of games won by the Denver Nuggets basketball team over the three seasons shown in the table. What expression should she simplify? Explain how she can use mental math and the properties (Associative, Commutative, Distributive, or Identity)to simplify the expression.
Denver Nuggets
Season Won Lost
'01-'02 27 55
'02-'03 17 65
'03-'04 43 39
87
To find the total number of games won by the Denver Nuggets over the three seasons shown in the table, Janice needs to add up the number of games won in each season.
She can simplify the expression by mentally computing the sum of the number of games won in each season: 27 + 17 + 43.
Using the properties of addition, specifically the Commutative and Associative properties, she can change the order of the numbers and group them together in a way that is easier to compute mentally:
(27 + 17) + 43
By grouping the numbers this way, Janice can perform the smaller additions mentally first:
(44) + 43
Now she can simply add the remaining numbers:
87
Therefore, the expression she should simplify is 27 + 17 + 43, which equals 87.