What is the expression 4 + 8(3x - 2) - 7x when simplified? Apply the order of operations and the commutative and distributive properties. Show all your work. (4 points)

Answer 1

To simplify the expression 4 + 8(3x - 2) - 7x, we need to apply the distributive property first.

8(3x - 2) = 8 * 3x - 8 * 2
= 24x - 16

Now the expression becomes:

4 + 24x - 16 - 7x

Next, we can combine like terms by simplifying the addition and subtraction:

4 - 16 = -12

So the expression becomes:

-12 + 24x - 7x

To combine the x terms, we can subtract the coefficients:

24x - 7x = 17x

Finally, the simplified expression is:

-12 + 17x