College

Ed tried to evaluate an expression. Here is his work:

[tex]
\[
\begin{array}{rlr}
& 65-\left[\left(2+3^2 \cdot 4\right)-5\right]+2 & \\
= & 65-[(2+9 \cdot 4)-5]+2 & \text { Step 1 } \\
= & 65-[(11 \cdot 4)-5]+2 & \text { Step 2 } \\
= & 65-[44-5]+2 & \text { Step 3 } \\
= & 65-39+2 & \text { Step 4 } \\
= & 26+2 & \text { Step 5 } \\
= & 28 & \text { Step 6 }
\end{array}
\]
[/tex]

Is Ed's work correct?

1. No, Ed made a mistake going from Step 1 to Step 2. Ed should have multiplied 9 and 4 before adding. The order of operations says to multiply before you add.

2. No, Ed made a mistake going from Step 3 to Step 4. Ed should have subtracted 44 from 65 instead of subtracting 5 from 44. The order of operations says to subtract from left to right.

3. Yes, Ed's work is correct.

Answer :

Let's carefully go through Ed's work and identify where he went wrong by following the correct order of operations.

The expression Ed started with is:
[tex]\[ 65 - \left[\left(2 + 3^2 \cdot 4 \right) - 5\right] + 2 \][/tex]

Let's evaluate this step by step:

1. Calculate [tex]\(3^2\)[/tex]:
[tex]\(3^2 = 9\)[/tex]

2. Evaluate the multiplication inside the brackets next:
Multiply [tex]\(9 \cdot 4\)[/tex]:
[tex]\(9 \cdot 4 = 36\)[/tex]

3. Add 2 to this product:
Inside the brackets, add 2:
[tex]\(2 + 36 = 38\)[/tex]

4. Subtract 5 from the result:
Complete the operations inside the brackets:
[tex]\(38 - 5 = 33\)[/tex]

5. Subtract from 65:
Now, evaluate [tex]\(65 - 33\)[/tex]:
[tex]\(65 - 33 = 32\)[/tex]

6. Add 2 to the result:
Finally, add 2:
[tex]\(32 + 2 = 34\)[/tex]

Upon checking each of these steps, the final correct answer is 34, not 28. So, Ed made a mistake in his calculations. The error occurred in Ed's Step 3 to Step 4. Ed incorrectly subtracted 5 from 44 when he should have subtracted 33 from 65. This mistake led to the final incorrect result of 28.