The temperature of a liquid is decreasing at a constant rate. After two minutes of cooling, it was at 178 degrees and after five minutes of cooling, it was at 154 degrees. At what temperature did the liquid start cooling? Show how you arrived at your answer.

Look, when you want to do something like put it like x^2. x2 could mean x² or x₂. so to clear confusion, know the notation. to find the product multiply the x's and you get -8x and the y's and you get 6y. since it's all being multiplied it is just -8x6y, or answer a. although the better answer is -48xy(combining -8 and 6) because you should multiply constants whenever you can.