Mary did the following problem.

Which of these statements is true?

It is correct.
It is wrong because 6^2 is 12.


It is wrong because 57 - 48 is 11


It is wrong because the subtraction should have been done before the addition.

1 answer

To determine which statement is true regarding Mary's problem, we need to assess her work step by step.

  1. Analyzing the statements:

    • "It is correct.": This suggests that Mary solved the problem correctly.
    • "It is wrong because 6^2 is 12.": This statement is incorrect; \(6^2\) is actually \(36\), not \(12\).
    • "It is wrong because 57 - 48 is 11.": This is incorrect; \(57 - 48\) is actually \(9\), not \(11\).
    • "It is wrong because the subtraction should have been done before the addition.": This may imply that Mary did not follow the correct order of operations (PEMDAS/BODMAS).
  2. Summary:

    • The first option could be true if her calculations were indeed correct.
    • The second and third statements are factually incorrect in their calculations.
    • The fourth statement indicates a misunderstanding of the operator precedence.
  3. Conclusion: Given the clarifications above, the true statement depends on Mary's specific calculations, but looking at the given options and their discrepancies with arithmetic principles, the third option addressing order of operations could typically apply, as it’s often a common source of confusion in mathematical problems. However, we'd need to evaluate the actual calculations to provide a definitive answer.

If you have the specifics of Mary's calculations, I can help determine the accuracy of her work!