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Exercises Numbers, fractions and percents

Example 3.53 from Prealgebra, 3.4 Multiply and Divide Integers

Multiply and Divide Integers: example 3.53

$Simplify: 12 - 3 (9 - 12) .$

Work it out on paper first. Then open the solution one step at a time, and stop as soon as you can finish on your own.

Solution
According to the order of operations, we simplify inside parentheses first. Then we will multiply and finally we will subtract.

$12 - 3 (9 - 12)$

Subtract the parentheses first. $12 - 3 (−3)$

Multiply. $12 - (−9)$

Subtract. $21$

Your turn

The book's Try It right after this example: same idea, new numbers. Only the answer is given.

Simplify:

$17 - 4 (8 - 11)$

How did it go?

PreviousMultiply and Divide Integers: example 3.52 Next Multiply and Divide Integers: example 3.54

From Prealgebra (1st edition) by OpenStax (Rice University), section 3.4, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Original at openstax.org. We split the solution into steps; the words, numbers and figures are the book's. OpenStax doesn't endorse this site.