Given: (−4.6k2+2.5k−3.8)−(3.6k+5.1k2)
Step 1: −4.6k2+2.5k−3.8−3.6k+5.1k2
Step 2: −4.6k2+5.1k2+2.5k−3.6k−3.8
Step 3: 0.5k2−1.1k−3.8
Complete the statements.
Caleb ___. (options are correctly found the difference of the polynomials, first made a mistake in step 1, first made a mistake in step 2, or first made a mistake in step 3)
1 answer
Caleb first made a mistake in step 1.
In Step 1, he should have distributed the negative sign to both terms inside the second parentheses, which would modify -3.6k into -3.6k and +5.1k² into -5.1k². Correctly, it should read:
\[ −4.6k^2 + 2.5k - 3.8 - 3.6k - 5.1k^2 \]
This means Caleb made a mistake initially, which carries through to the subsequent steps.
