Jerome is finding the product of 589 x 12. His work is shown below.

589 x 12 = 1178 + 589 = 1767
which statement is true about Jerome's work?

A. Jerome forgot to carry the 1 when he multiplied 2 x 9.
B. Jerome added incorrectly.
C. Jerome forgot to use 0 as a placeholder.
D. Jerome solved the problem correctly.

1 answer

Let's analyze Jerome's work step by step.

Jerome calculated \(589 \times 12\) and wrote:

  1. \(589 \times 12 = 1178 + 589 = 1767\)

The correct steps for calculating \(589 \times 12\) would be:

  1. Multiply \(589\) by \(2\) (the units digit of 12): \[ 589 \times 2 = 1178 \]

  2. Multiply \(589\) by \(10\) (the tens digit of 12): \[ 589 \times 10 = 5890 \]

  3. Then add the two products together: \[ 1178 + 5890 \]

Now let's check Jerome's specific claims or potential mistakes.

A. Jerome forgot to carry the 1 when he multiplied \(2 \times 9\):

  • This does not apply, as he correctly calculated \(589 \times 2 = 1178\).

B. Jerome added incorrectly:

  • In fact, \(1178 + 589\) was done, but the latter multiplication should have been with \(10\) instead of adding to \(589\).

C. Jerome forgot to use \(0\) as a placeholder:

  • This is indeed true; when multiplying by \(10\), there should have been a placeholder \(0\).

D. Jerome solved the problem correctly:

  • He did not; the result \(1767\) is incorrect for \(589 \times 12\).

Based on this analysis, the true statement about Jerome's work is:

C. Jerome forgot to use 0 as a placeholder.