Question

How do you simplify `1-(x+4)`?

Answer 1

`1 - (x+4)`

Ok, so imagine there's a negative one in front of the `(x+4)` because that's easier to understand. One way to write that would be:

`1 - 1 (x+4)`

Distribute the negative 1 into the equation by multiplying -1 by both `x` and `4`. This leave you with:

`1 - x - 4`

Because 1 minus 4 is `-3`, that leaves you with:

`-3 + -x`

Answer 2

A way you can look at this is like this

`1-1(x+4)`

This is the same as the original question, I just added a "1" before the brackets to indicate that the `(x-4)` is actually being multiplied by a `-1`. So by the distributive property, you could distribute that `-1` into the brackets to get rid of them and simplify on from there.

So, we have `1-1(x+4)`
By distributing the -1, we get: `1-1x-4`
Simplifying by addition: `-3-1x=-3-x`

We could just write this as `-3-x` since the 1 before the `x`, although not explicitly shown, is actually there. In the end, you do have ONE `x`. You don't always have to put the one in when you're distributing the negative into the brackets, but I just showed it there to illustrate the fact that the whole bracket was being multiplied by a `-1`. You could just distribute the negative sign immediately if you wanted to, if you understand that it's the same as multiplying by a `-1`.