tammyw Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 We just started working with this. The format is definitely different from the other versions (we are doing Standards). Question: Sean saves $p a month. He saves twice as much as Eve. Holly saves twice as much as Sean in a month. a) How much money does Eve save in a month? Express the answer in terms of p. DD11 wrote her answer as: P/2 Singapore answer is 1/2 P Is DD's answer just as effective? This is how I would have written it btw. c) How much money do Sean and Eve save? Express the answers in terms of p. DD11 wrote her answer as: p/2 + p Singapore answer 1 1/2 p The singapore answer here is obviously better, but considering her answer for a) above, I can see why she did it. My brain is having a hard time because it's been a long time since algebra, and I'm aware this is a super easy question. I just want to make sure I give her the best explanation possible and I'm struggling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 p/2 is ok. However p/2 + p is not the final answer because you have two like terms with a + between them. It would be 3p/2 or 1 1/2 p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickerdoodle Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Her answer is not in simplified form. Just simplify and she's done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tammyw Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 Right - I'm just confused how to simplify c) from her answer. Why is my brain struggling with this? Ridiculous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmos Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Right - I'm just confused how to simplify c) from her answer. Why is my brain struggling with this? Ridiculous! p/2 + p = p * 1/2 + p * 1 = p (1/2 + 1) by the distributive property = p (3/2) = 3p/2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickerdoodle Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Well, p/2 + p is the same as 1/2 p + 2/2 p = 3/2 p or 1 1/2 p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickerdoodle Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Oooooooohhhhh posting at the same time. Either way though... :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tammyw Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 Thank you :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letsplaymath Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 The answers are equivalent, and since the book did not specify a certain form to use, your daughter's answers are perfectly fine. In fact, I prefer her answer in the second one over what the book gave because mixed numbers are almost never used in algebra and beyond. Be warned: The problem of recognizing equivalent or equally valid answers will only get worse in high school math. The answer key is a help, but not an absolute authority! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tammyw Posted October 24, 2014 Author Share Posted October 24, 2014 The answers are equivalent, and since the book did not specify a certain form to use, your daughter's answers are perfectly fine. In fact, I prefer her answer in the second one over what the book gave because mixed numbers are almost never used in algebra and beyond. Be warned: The problem of recognizing equivalent or equally valid answers will only get worse in high school math. The answer key is a help, but not an absolute authority! Thanks for your response! So you are saying that even though her answer isn't fully simplified, it's still valid? It's been a loooooooong time since I did algebra, and while I was good at it 25 years ago, it's not "coming back" to me yet, lol! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letsplaymath Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 Her answers are definitely valid, and I would count them for full credit unless the question specified a certain form. The first answer is fully simplified, too. The second answer can be written as a monomial, which might be considered "simplified," but there are certain problems in algebra (such as geometric series in algebra 2 or precalculus) where the form that she gave would actually be *more* helpful in seeing the pattern of the solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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