How do you evaluate $(\frac { 5} { 9} ) ( - \frac { 4} { 5} ) ( \frac { 3} { 8} ) ( - 12)$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2018-03-08T06:19:05

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We can write the expression this way (I'm going to put the $-12$ into a fractional form so that we can better see numerators and denominators):

$5/9xx-4/5xx3/8xx-12/1$

Let's deal with the negative signs first - there are two of them, meaning we have $-1xx-1=1$ and so the negative signs cancel:

$5/9xx4/5xx3/8xx12/1$

We have some opportunities to cancel terms:

$cancel5/cancel9^3xxcancel4/cancel5xxcancel3/cancel8^cancel2xxcancel12^6/1=6/3=2$

How do you evaluate (\frac { 5} { 9} ) ( - \frac { 4} { 5} ) ( \frac { 3} { 8} ) ( - 12)(\frac { 5} { 9} ) ( - \frac { 4} { 5} ) ( \frac { 3} { 8} ) ( - 12)?