Use the properties of operations and rules for multiplying and dividing to solve: (-3) divided by (3/4) multiplied by (2/7) multiplied by (-5/16) divided by (5/7)

1 answer

To solve the expression \((-3) \div \left(\frac{3}{4}\right) \times \left(\frac{2}{7}\right) \times \left(-\frac{5}{16}\right) \div \left(\frac{5}{7}\right)\), we will proceed step by step, using the properties of operations and simplifying where possible.

  1. Convert divisions to multiplications by taking the reciprocal:

    \[ (-3) \div \left(\frac{3}{4}\right) = (-3) \times \left(\frac{4}{3}\right) \]

    \[ \div \left(\frac{5}{7}\right) = \times \left(\frac{7}{5}\right) \]

    Thus, the expression can be rewritten as:

    \[ (-3) \times \left(\frac{4}{3}\right) \times \left(\frac{2}{7}\right) \times \left(-\frac{5}{16}\right) \times \left(\frac{7}{5}\right) \]

  2. Combining all the fractions:

    First, we can combine the multiplications:

    \[ = (-3) \times \left(-\frac{5}{16}\right) \times \left(\frac{4}{3}\right) \times \left(\frac{2}{7}\right) \times \left(\frac{7}{5}\right) \]

    Notice that \( (-3) \times \left(-\frac{5}{16}\right) \) will yield a positive product:

    \[ = \frac{15}{16} \]

  3. Now multiply by the remaining fractions:

    The expression can thus be simplified to:

    \[ = \frac{15}{16} \times \left(\frac{4}{3}\right) \times \left(\frac{2}{7}\right) \times \left(\frac{7}{5}\right) \]

  4. We can cancel terms before multiplying:

    Notice that the \(\frac{7}{5}\) will cancel with \(-\frac{5}{16}\) as we already included it, and any other simplifications can be done now:

  5. Calculating the products step by step:

    At this point, we combine the products:

    \[ \frac{15 \times 4 \times 2 \times 7}{16 \times 3 \times 7 \times 5} \]

    The \(7\)s cancel:

    \[ = \frac{15 \times 4 \times 2}{16 \times 3 \times 5} \]

  6. Calculate numerators and denominators:

    • Numerator: \(15 \times 4 \times 2 = 120\)
    • Denominator: \(16 \times 3 \times 5 = 240\)

    Thus, we have:

    \[ = \frac{120}{240} \]

    This simplifies to:

    \[ = \frac{1}{2} \]

So the final answer is:

\[ \boxed{\frac{1}{2}} \]