Discover a wealth of knowledge at Westonci.ca, where experts provide answers to your most pressing questions. Experience the ease of finding quick and accurate answers to your questions from professionals on our platform. Connect with a community of professionals ready to help you find accurate solutions to your questions quickly and efficiently.

Use the Associative Property of Addition to simplify the following expression:

[tex]\[ 24 + 18 + (-9) + (-12) \][/tex]

A. 63
B. 11
C. -21
D. 21


Sagot :

Sure, let's use the Associative Property of Addition to simplify the given expression step-by-step:

Given expression:
[tex]\[ 24 + 18 + (-9) + (-12) \][/tex]

Step 1: Grouping the numbers in pairs to simplify. We can rearrange the addition to make it easier to handle:

[tex]\[ (24 + 18) + ((-9) + (-12)) \][/tex]

Step 2: Add the numbers within each group:

[tex]\[ 24 + 18 = 42 \][/tex]

and

[tex]\[ (-9) + (-12) = -21 \][/tex]

Step 3: Now, add the results from each of the groups together:

[tex]\[ 42 + (-21) \][/tex]

Step 4: Finally, perform the addition:

[tex]\[ 42 + (-21) = 21 \][/tex]

So, the simplified result of the expression [tex]\( 24 + 18 + (-9) + (-12) \)[/tex] is [tex]\( 21 \)[/tex].