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violent_anger basically did it, but I'll explain it in my own way because I'm bored.Since no one else is really using this thread, I guess I will. I'm doing my review packet for honors Algebra 2. I have the answer key and some of my answers don't match up with the key:
1) -1/2m(-1/2m) -1/2m-1/2m
I got m^4 but the answer key says 1/4m^2-m.
Anyone know how to do this?
I have another question but idk how to type it on the computer so I'm not gonna worry about it.
Edit: Simplify equation, with m being the variable.
Ok, so let's rewrite the equation:
[(-1/2m)(-1/2m)] - 1/2m - 1/2m
Now that's done, remember order of operations. First you want to get rid of the brackets, and to do this, you need to multiply. Which ones do you multiply? The bolded portion:
[(-1/2m)(-1/2m)] - 1/2m - 1/2m
Once you do the multiplication, it'll look like this:
1/4m^2 - 1/2m - 1/2m
When you multiply two negatives, the resulting number becomes a positive. This much you should know. Now, when multiplying two fractions, you multiply the numerator of the first by the numerator of the second, and then the denominator of the first by the denominator of the second. So in this example, the first numerator is the number 1, while the second numerator is also 1. Obviously, 1 multiplied by 1 is itself, and so we get 1. Now, the denominator for the first is 2, and similarly, the denominator of the second also happens to be 2. Now, if you remember from way back when, you should realize that 2 multiplied by 2 will result in 4. Thus, our constant becomes 1/4. Now, we also know that when multiplying a variable on itself (i.e. 'a' times 'a', 'x' times 'x'), it becomes the variable squared. In this case, our variable is 'm'. When 'm' is multiplied onto itself, it becomes m^2. Since you can't multiply a constant onto a variable since the variable has no set value yet, we get 1/4m^2.
Onto the next part. Now that we've dealt with that, we still have to worry about this portion:
1/4m^2 - 1/2m - 1/2m
As violent_anger said, "-1/2m - 1/2m simplifies to -2/2m, which again simplifies to -m." If you remember how to add/subtract fractions, this should make perfect sense. After that's all done, our final answer becomes:
1/4m^2 - m
It was probably completely pointless to do this, but whatever.