Question

Hi! Can someone please help me with this problem? What is equivalent to -1/2 (-2x + 4y) Thanks!

Answer 1

In order to simplify this expression, we need to multiply the number (-1/2) by the other term.

To do so, first we need to apply the distributive property:

`(-(1)/(2))\cdot(-2x+4y)=(-(1)/(2))\cdot(-2x)+(-(1)/(2))\cdot(4y)`

Then, calculating the products separately, we have that:

`\begin{gathered} (-(1)/(2))\cdot(-2x)=x \\ (-(1)/(2))\cdot(4y)=-2y \end{gathered}`

So the equivalent expression is:

`(-(1)/(2))\cdot(-2x)+(-(1)/(2))\cdot(4y)=x-2y`

The final expression is x - 2y