During a football game, a team lost 12 yards on the first play and then gained 5 yards on each of the next 3 plays. Which method finds the total yards at the end of the first four plays?

A loss of 12 yards is represented by −12. The next three plays gain 5 yards each, represented by 3 × 5. Adding these gives −12 + 3 × 5 = 3 yards, so the correct method is to add negative 12 to 3 times 5.

AI-written and checked against the verified answer.