Clara and her family are vacationing in the Netherlands. They began a tour of the North Sea coastline at an elevation of –

Question

8 feet. By the end of the tour, their elevation had decreased by 5 feet. What was their elevation at the end of the tour?
To solve the problem, Braden subtracted –
8–5 and came up with an answer of –
13 feet. Is Braden correct? Why or why not?

Answer 1

To find the elevation at the end of the tour, we need to understand that decreasing elevation means we are moving further below sea level. Clara and her family started at an elevation of -8 feet.

When the problem states that their elevation "decreased by 5 feet," we interpret this as moving to an elevation that is 5 feet lower than -8 feet.

This means we need to subtract 5 from -8:

\[ -8 - 5 = -13 \text{ feet} \]

So at the end of the tour, their elevation would be -13 feet.

Braden's calculation of \(-8 - 5 = -13\) is indeed correct. Therefore, while his method of subtraction was appropriate, it seems he may have mistakenly represented the operation.

In summary, Clara and her family’s elevation at the end of the tour is -13 feet, and Braden is correct in his final answer of -13 feet.