Question

How do you evaluate the function $f(x)=3x-7$ for $f(-1)$ ?

Answer 1

Hint: In this question, we have to find the value of an algebraic function given in the form of an equation. Thus, we will use the substitution method and the basic mathematical rules to get the solution. First, we will substitute the value of -1 in place of x in the given function f(x). Then, we will use the distributive property $a(b)=ab$ on the right-hand side in the given algebraic equation. After that, we will make the necessary calculations, to get the required solution for the given problem.

Complete step by step solution:
According to the question, we have to find the value of an algebraic function.
Thus, we will use the substitution method and the distributive property to get the solution.
The algebraic function given to us is $f(x)=3x-7$ --------- (1)
We start solving our problem by substituting the value -1 on the place of x, which is putting the value $x=-1$ in the algebraic equation (1), we get
$\Rightarrow f\left( -1 \right)=3\left( -1 \right)-7$
The, we will apply the distributive property $a(b)=ab$ on the right-hand side in the above algebraic equation, we get
$\Rightarrow f\left( -1 \right)=-3-7$
On further simplifying the above algebraic equation, we get
$\Rightarrow f\left( -1 \right)=-10$ which is the required solution.
Therefore, when we substitute the value -1 in the place of x in the algebraic function $f(x)=3x-7$ , we get the value of the function f(x) equal to -10.

Note:
While solving this problem, do all the step-by-step calculations properly to avoid confusion and mathematical mistakes. Always mention the value of x, which is -1 in the function to get an accurate answer.