3(-2/3 + 4/9)

Question

The 2/3 and 4/9 are fractions. How do I figure this out?

Answer 1

just as you can't add apples and oranges, you can't add thirds and ninths unless you can somehow express them as the same things.

In this case, since 2/3 = 6/9, we can convert the expression to

3(-6/9 + 4/9)

Now, since we're just adding ninths, we get

3(-2/9) = -6/9 = -2/3