Part A
Priya’s favorite gorillas are a mother named Sophia and her baby. The zoo attendant said that Sophia weighs 8 pounds more than 5 times her baby’s weight. To determine the baby gorilla’s weight, Priya can use the equation 5a + 8 = 318, where a is the weight of the baby gorilla. Plug the weight of each gorilla into the equation to check which value makes the equation true.

Question

Mercury · Answer

first step would be to solve the equation for a

5a + 8 = 318

to get a by itself, subtract 8 from both sides, then divide both sides by 5