054e. Substituting Integers into Expressions

Learning Intentions

  • To understand that substitution involves replacing a pronumeral (letter) with a number
  • Substitute positive or negative integers into an expression and Evaluate

Pre-requisite Summary

  • Understand that a pronumeral or variable is a letter that represents a number
  • Know that substitution means replacing the letter everywhere it appears with the given value
  • Recognise that multiplication can be written without a sign, for example
  • Be able to Use brackets when substituting negative numbers, for example if , then
  • Recall the order of operations for expressions involving more than one operation
  • Be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide positive and negative integers

Worked Examples

Worked Example 1

Substitute and evaluate:

a) Solve the value of when

b) Find the value of when

Worked Example 2

Substitute and evaluate:

a) Find the value of when

b) Find the value of when

Worked Example 3

Substitute and evaluate:

a) Find the value of when

b) Find the value of when

Worked Example 4

Substitute and evaluate:

a) Find the value of when

b) Find the value of when

Worked Example 5

Substitute and evaluate Use order of operations:

a) Find the value of when

b) Find the value of when

Worked Example 6

Substitute and evaluate with two pronumerals:

a) Find the value of when and

b) Find the value of when and

Problems

Problem 1

Substitute and evaluate:

a) Find the value of when

b) Find the value of when

Problem 2

Substitute and evaluate:

a) Find the value of when

b) Find the value of when

Problem 3

Substitute and evaluate:

a) Find the value of when

b) Find the value of when

Problem 4

Substitute and evaluate:

a) Find the value of when

b) Find the value of when

Problem 5

Substitute and evaluate using order of operations:

a) Find the value of when

b) Find the value of when

Problem 6

Substitute and evaluate with two pronumerals:

a) Find the value of when and

b) Find the value of when and

Exercises

Understanding and Fluency

Exercise 1.

Substitute and evaluate:

a) when

b) when

c) when

Exercise 2.

Substitute and evaluate:

a) when

b) when

c) when

Exercise 3.

Substitute and evaluate:

a) when

b) when

c) when

Exercise 4.

Substitute and evaluate:

a) when

b) when

c) when

Exercise 5.

Substitute and evaluate:

a) when

b) when

c) when

Exercise 6.

Substitute and evaluate using two pronumerals:

a) when

b) when

c) when

Exercise 7.

Substitute and evaluate using two pronumerals:

a) when

b) when

c) when

Exercise 8.

Substitute and evaluate using order of operations:

a) when

b) when

c) when

Reasoning

Exercise 9.

Explain why means when substituting a value for .

Exercise 10.

A student says that if , then . Explain the mistake.

Exercise 11.

Explain why using brackets helps when substituting a negative number into an expression.

Exercise 12.

A student substitutes into and gets . Explain why this is incorrect.

Problem-solving

Exercise 13.

The temperature is modelled by . Find the value when .

Exercise 14.

A game score is given by . Find the score when .

Exercise 15.

The lift position is represented by . Find the value when .

Exercise 16.

A bank balance is modelled by . Find the value when .

Exercise 17.

A diver’s position is represented by . Find the value when .

Exercise 18.

The expression for a point score is . Find the score when and .

Potential Misunderstandings

  • Students may think substitution means adding the given number to the expression instead of replacing the pronumeral
  • Students may forget to replace every occurrence of the pronumeral in an expression
  • Students may not recognise that means multiplication
  • Students may treat a negative substituted value as if the negative sign disappears
  • Students may fail to use brackets when substituting a negative number and then make sign errors
  • Students may ignore order of operations after substitution
  • Students may confuse the operation sign in the expression with the sign of the substituted integer
  • Students may make arithmetic errors when evaluating expressions with negative integers

Next: 055. Cartesian Plane