can someone explain this math problem to me??

Question

ok iv bin haveing alot of trouble with math since i moved to a new school...everything seams harder so can someone please explain this math problem to me??

-(-(-4.7))

what dose the -(-(- mean
and the )) after the problem
and how do i solve it?? please dont give the answer to the problem i dont want people to think im just trying to get an answer i just want to know what the problem means and how to solve it.

im so confused please help...

Answer 1

( ) are parentheses. They mean you work out what's inside the parentheses first. So 2(4 + 1) means 2 times what you get after adding 4 and 1, i.e., 2 times 5 = 10.

- is a minus sign. It can be used two ways. (a) 5 - 3 means 5 take away 3. (b) -2 means negative two, i.e., two less than zero. (If you don't know what negative numbers are, then you need to work on that first. It's like 2 means you have two apples, but -2 means you owe someone two apples.)

-(something) means you negate what's in the parentheses. It's like saying 0-(something). So -(3) = 0-3 = -3, i.e., three less than zero is negative three.

An important thing to understand is that subtracting a negative number is like adding a positive number. So -(-2) = 2.

Answer 2

It means that 4.7 is in two brackets, the 2 )) at the end is the closing part of the two brackets because as you know (hopefully) all brackets begin with "(" and end with ")".

There is a negative sign in front of a bracket. Think of each - sign as a -1, since multiplying by 1 doesn't change the value then...

-(-(-4.7)) = -1(-1(-4.7))

When a number is in front of a bracket it always means multiply (remember that) so that means...

-1(-1(-4.7)) = -1*-1*-4.7

Then you can just use multiplication to figure it out!

Answer 3

We have this nasty habit in math of not writing 1 when it is a coefficient; but it is still there.

And -1 times something will change the sign of that something
example
-1(3) = -3
-1(-3) = +3 = 3
(we also have the other nasty habit of not writing the + sign in front of a positive number, but it's still there)

-(-(-4.7)) = -1(-1(-4.7))

always work from the inside, going outwards:

-1(-4.7) = +4.7
-1( -1(+4.7) ) = -1(+4.7) = -4.7

Once you are OK with this, then skip the 1 and take it this way:
a minus in front of a braket changes the sign(s) inside the bracket:

-(-4.7) = +4.7

-(x - y) = -x + y

Answer 4

I interpret this to mean the negative of the negative of negative 4.7. I know that sounds awfully clunky.

The parentheses are there to clarify what's being made negative. At least they're trying to, anyway.

Look at things from the inside out --

Innermost you have

-4.7

Outside that you have

-(-4.7)

Since the negative of a negative is just the positive thing, this equals 4.7.

The outermost negative sign reverses the sign again, so my answer is

- 4.7.

Really, all this is showing is that three minus 'flips' is the same as one.

Answer 5

Take this slowly, one step at a time.

-4.7 means negative 4.7


-(-4.7) means the negative of what is in
the parenthesis. In other words, it is
the negative of negative 4.7. It evaluates
to positive 4.7.

-(-(-4.7)) means the negative of -(-4.7).
Since -(-4.7) evaluates to 4.7
-(-(-4.7)) evaluates to -4.7.

If this does not make sense to you, have some
one read it to you, while you look at what I wrote
to the left of the words.
Another hint: Tell yourself that it is easy, because
it IS easy. All at once, the light will come on.

Answer 6

the - is basically the same as a -1 so the problem is really
-1(-1(-4.7) so after that its just easy multiplicatioon

Answer 7

pretend the negatives are a negative 1
so it would b like multiplying -4.7 by -1 and then by -1 again
the parenthesis are just a different way to write -1 x -1 x -4.7

Answer 8

the - sign means to multiply by negative one.

If you multiply an odd number of times, the answer will still be negative. If you multiply an even number of times, it will be positive (because -1 * -1 is +1).

So the answer is -4.7 (because three is an odd number)

Answer 9

the parenthesis just means "do this first", ex. (5+2)3=? ?=21 because you multiply 7 x 3... so in you problem, its just there to confuse you but becuase you have an odd (3) amount of negatives, your answer is negative..

Answer 10

if you look at the other side that means that they are parentheses... so if you ignore the outer - then you get -(-4.7)
this means that the two - cancels out to get a +. now you get -(4.7) which is 4.7