Simple Maths Question, Anyone ??

I think that phyre has it down except (and I'm not sure about this) are the negative and positive signs correct. My answer came out to 6b + 5. This is how I came to it. Do what phyre did in working with the numbers in parenthesis. 2 (a - 3) + 4b - 2 (a - b - 3) + 5 2a - 6 + 4b -2a + 2b + 6 + 5 (negative 2 times negative b and negative 3 should be positive?) Now come the canceling: I crossed out 2a and -2a, I crossed out negative 6 and positive 6 This leaves 4b + 2b + 5 which brought me to 6b + 5. If I'm wrong, I won't be surprised because it's been 35 years.

Well, I'll try to figure this out, though I'll admit that my math skills are kind of shady, so I'll do the best I can. As far as I can tell, parenthesis always come first. In this case, the parenthesis need to be multiplied. So first we look at 2(a-3), which means that you need to multiply whatever's in the parenthesis by the 2. So this part becomes 2a - 6. The next step is 2(a-b-3), which means, again, the things inside the parenthesis need to be multiplied by two. So this step means that it is now 2a-2b-6. Now the total equation we have is 2a - 6 + 4b - 2a - 2b - 6 + 5. What you have to do next is simplify by combining like terms. 2a is combined with a -2a,which means that it cancels that out, so we're left with -6 + 4b - 2b - 6 + 5. Now -6 combines with -6 and +5, which leaves us with -7. So the equation now is 4b - 2b - 7. Then when you simplify the last bit, it becomes 2b - 7. I think that's the answer you were looking for? Maybe? :)