What is the expression 4 + 8(3x - 2) -7x when simplified? Apply the order of operations and the commutative and distributive properties. Show all your work.

Answer 1

To simplify the expression 4 + 8(3x - 2) - 7x, we can start by applying the distributive property. According to the distributive property, we need to multiply the number outside the parentheses by each term inside the parentheses.

So, 8 multiplied by 3x is 24x, and 8 multiplied by -2 is -16.

The simplified expression becomes:

4 + 24x - 16 - 7x

Now, we can combine like terms.

The x terms are 24x and -7x. When we subtract 7x from 24x, we get 17x.

The constant terms are 4 and -16. When we subtract 16 from 4, we get -12.

Therefore, the simplified expression is:

17x - 12