In a game of football, Jared gained 12 yards on the first play of the game. On the second play of the game, Jared lost 12 yards. How many total yards did Jared gain or lose?
Understand the Problem
The question asks to determine the net yardage gained or lost by Jared after two plays, where he gained 12 yards on the first play and lost 12 yards on the second play. This requires adding the yardage from both plays, considering a loss as a negative value.
Answer
0 yards
Answer for screen readers
The net yardage gained or lost by Jared is 0 yards.
Steps to Solve
- Represent the yardage of each play as numbers
Representing a gain as a positive number and a loss as a negative number, the first play is +12 yards and the second play is -12 yards.
- Add the yardage from both plays
To find the net yardage, add the yardage from the first play to the yardage from the second play:
$12 + (-12)$
- Simplify the addition
Adding a negative number is the same as subtracting the positive number:
$12 - 12 = 0$
- State the result
The net yardage is 0 yards.
The net yardage gained or lost by Jared is 0 yards.
More Information
A net yardage of 0 means that after the two plays, Jared is at the same position he started from. He gained yards and then lost the same amount, effectively canceling each other out.
Tips
A common mistake is to misinterpret the loss of yards as a positive value or to subtract the loss from the gain instead of adding it as a negative number. This can lead to an incorrect net yardage calculation.
For example, some might incorrectly calculate $12 - (-12) = 24$, failing to recognize that the second play resulted in a loss represented by $-12$.
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