The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
The correct answer is 43.79 km.
To find the total distance driven, you need to combine the two separate distances from the journey. The problem states that the first leg of the trip is 24.84 kilometers to the school, and the second leg is 18.95 kilometers from the school to a friend’s house. The question “how far do you drive?” is asking for the sum of these two distances. Therefore, the correct mathematical operation to use is addition.
The calculation involves adding the two decimal numbers together: 24.84 and 18.95. When adding decimals, it is crucial to align the numbers by their decimal points. This ensures that you are adding the correct place values to one another, such as hundredths to hundredths and tenths to tenths.
We can solve this step by step, starting from the rightmost column, which is the hundredths place. First, you add 4 and 5, which equals 9. This digit becomes the hundredths place in our final answer.
Next, you move to the tenths place and add 8 and 9. The sum is 17. In this situation, you write down the 7 in the tenths place of your answer and carry over the 1 to the next column to the left, the ones place.
Now, you add the digits in the ones place, which are 4 and 8, and you must also include the 1 that was carried over. The sum of 4, 8, and 1 is 13. Again, you write down the 3 in the ones place of the answer and carry the 1 over to the tens place.
Finally, you add the digits in the tens place. This includes 2, 1, and the carried over 1, which gives you a total of 4.
By putting all the calculated digits together, you get the final result. The total distance you drive is 43.79 kilometers.
