Expert: Lynn Houston - 1/12/2011

Question
i'm trying to figure out what it means when you have a problem inside quotation marks but no sign in front of it. here is the problem. -8(4 + -6). do the quotations mean multiply, divide?

Answer
it implies multiplication.  So, first, you would do the "addition" (actually subtraction) in the parentheses and then multiply by -8.  4 "plus" - 6 is the same as 4-6, which = -2.
-8(-2) = 16.  You can also use the distributive property and multiply first.

-8(4 + -6) = -32 + 48 = 16