Question

Which shows the best use of the associative and commutative properties to make simplifying 1/6 - 8 + 3 - 5/6 + 9

Answer 1

To simplify the expression 1/6 - 8 + 3 - 5/6 + 9, we can use the associative and commutative properties to rearrange the terms. Let's group the terms with addition and subtraction separately:

(1/6 - 5/6) + (-8 + 3 + 9)

Using the commutative property, we can rearrange the terms within each group:

(-5/6 + 1/6) + (9 + 3 - 8)

Now, we can simplify within each group:

(-4/6) + (4)

Finally, we can simplify further:

-2/3 + 4

And that gives us the simplified expression.