Question

In an auction, the base price of a painting is $b. The next bid for the painting is twice the value which is 12 less than 8 times the base price.The steps to convert this statement into an expression are given below. Find the first error, if any.

• A. Step 2: Subtract 12 from 8b to get $(8b-12)$.
• B. Step 3: Divide $(8b-12)$ by 2 to get $\frac{(8b-12)}{2}$.
• C. Step 4: No error.
• D. Step 1: Multiply 8 by b to get 8b.

Answer 1

The correct option is B Step 3: Divide $(8b-12)$ by 2 to get $\frac{(8b-12)}{2}$.

Base price of the painting $=\$b$
The next bid for the painting twice the value which is 12 less than 8 times the base price, b.
8 times the base price means 8$\times$ b=8b.
12 less than 8 times the base price means (8b - 12). Twice the value which is 12 less than 8 times the base price = 2$\times$ (8b-12) So, the error is in step 3.