Yan is climbing down a ladder. Each time he descends 4 rungs on the ladder, he stops to see how much farther he has to go. If Yan made 8 stops with no extra steps, which expression best shows another way to write the product of the number of ladder rungs that Yan climbed?
Answer
A
8 plus 8 plus 8 plus 8 plus 8 plus 8 plus 8 plus 8
B
negative 1 times open paren 4 plus 4 plus 4 plus 4 close paren
C
negative 4 plus negative 4 plus negative 4 plus negative 4 plus negative 4 plus negative 4 plus negative 4 plus negative 4
D
4 plus 4 plus 4 plus 4
Explanation
Each stop follows a descent of 4 rungs, and 8 stops means Yan descends 4 rungs 8 times. Because he is climbing down, each descent can be represented as −4, so the total is −4 + −4 + −4 + −4 + −4 + −4 + −4 + −4. Choice C shows this repeated addition.
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