Sehyr solved the equation w2−7=11

. She seems to have made an error in her work because the solution she found does not work. Observe Sehyr’s work to find her error and correct it to find the solution to the equation.

Sehyr’s work:

w2−7=11

w2−7+7=11+7
Using the Addition Property of Equality

w22=182
Using the Division Property of Equality

w=9

(1 point)
The solution to the equation is
.

1 answer

Let's first review Sehyr's work and identify where the error occurred.

Sehyr started with the equation: \[ w^2 - 7 = 11 \]

She added 7 to both sides correctly: \[ w^2 - 7 + 7 = 11 + 7 \] This simplifies to: \[ w^2 = 18 \]

The error occurs in the next step:

Sehyr wrote: \[ w^2 \div 2 = 18 \div 2 \] This is not correct. The correct step is to take the square root of both sides.

So instead of dividing by 2, we take the square root: \[ w = \pm \sqrt{18} \]

Now, we can simplify \(\sqrt{18}\): \[ w = \pm \sqrt{9 \cdot 2} = \pm \sqrt{9} \cdot \sqrt{2} = \pm 3\sqrt{2} \]

Thus, the solution to the equation is: \[ w = 3\sqrt{2} \quad \text{or} \quad w = -3\sqrt{2} \]

Final answer: \[ \text{The solution to the equation is } w = 3\sqrt{2} \text{ and } w = -3\sqrt{2}. \]