What is the expression 4 + 8(3x-1) - 7x when simplified? Apply the order of operations and communicative and distributive properties. Show all work.

Answer 1

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.