Question

Your taco truck is preparing for a busy afternoon. You’re organizing ingredients at different stations to make sure there’s enough for every order.

There are 5 prep stations in total, each with 6 containers of salsa and 3 containers of guacamole.

You can represent the total number of containers using the expression:

5 × (6 + 3)

Which of the following expressions also represents the total number of containers?
Question 5 options:

5 + (6 × 3)

(5 × 6) + (5 × 3)

(5 + 6) × 3

(5 × 6) × 3

Answer 1

Compute 5 × (6 + 3) = 5 × 9 = 45.

Evaluate each option:
- 5 + (6 × 3) = 5 + 18 = 23 → no.
- (5 × 6) + (5 × 3) = 30 + 15 = 45 → yes (distributive property).
- (5 + 6) × 3 = 11 × 3 = 33 → no.
- (5 × 6) × 3 = 30 × 3 = 90 → no.

So the correct expression is (5 × 6) + (5 × 3).