How do you simplify # [-54 / (-9)] / 3#?

Question

1636 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2017-01-14T19:44:24

See full simplification process below:

First, we will eliminate the negative sign:

#(-54/-9)/3 -> (- -54/9)/3 -> (54/9)/3#

Next, we can rewrite this as:

#(54/9)/(3/1)# because #3# and #3/1# are equivalent.

Now we can use the rule for dividing fractions:

#(color(red)(a)/color(blue)(b))/(color(green)(c)/color(purple)(d)) = (color(red)(a) xx color(purple)(d))/(color(blue)(b) xx color(green)(c))#

#(54/9)/(3/1) -> (54 xx 1)/(9 xx 3) -> 54/27 = 2#