Question

Hank's work to solve the equation 25= x/4 - 9 is shown. In which step did Hank make a mistake, and what mistake did he make?

Step 1:
16 = x/4

Step 2:
x = 64

A. Hank made a mistake in Step 1. The first step needed to solve this correctly would be to add 9 to both sides of the equation. Hank subtracted 9 instead of adding 9.
B. Hank made a mistake in Step 1. The first step needed to solve this correctly would be to multiply both sides of the equation by 4. Hank divided by 4 instead of multiplying.

Answer 1

A. Hank made a mistake in Step 1. The first step needed to solve this correctly would be to add 9 to both sides of the equation. Hank subtracted 9 instead of adding 9.

To clarify, the initial equation is:

\[ 25 = \frac{x}{4} - 9 \]

To correctly isolate \(\frac{x}{4}\), you would need to add 9 to both sides:

\[ 25 + 9 = \frac{x}{4} \]

This simplifies to:

\[ 34 = \frac{x}{4} \]

Hank's Step 1 incorrectly presented it as \(16 = \frac{x}{4}\), which is not correct. After correcting Step 1, the next step would then involve multiplying both sides by 4 to solve for \(x\).