N1cky

Can anyone help with this?

My daughter missed a couple of days of school last week, they are taught their math lesson and don't have any text books...

Her homework consists of a worksheet that simply says Integer multiplication, find the product, and has questions like

3(-2a)

(12)(3)(-a)

(2)(-y)(5)

I'm utterly clueless, and despite googling for the last 20 minutes while I'm supposed to be working, still couldn't find anything.

ChocolateBabz

I can give you some help from a book I got for the dude - can I email or message you the info? You can pm me your email or facebook whatevs!

N1cky

Thanks, I've facebook friended you

Michael

I think they are just simplifying the expressions but your daughter should probably call a friend to determine if that is what the teacher wants as a result.

Simplifying Expressions Calculator -- Algebra.Help

N1cky

Thanks, it was the letters that were confusing us.

ChocolateBabz came through with the answer, thanks to a pre-algebra book. Think I'll be placing an order with Amazon tonight.

Yorkieabroad

Out of interest, which books are you using? I got the Barron's Pre-Algebra and Algebra I for my son, but always looking for good alternatives.

I like that website Michael.....that may be getting some use from me as well as my son, as I am rapidly finding out how much I have forgotten in the last 3 decades or so!

N1cky

The book CB used was Barrons Painless pre-algebra.

The websites are good, I must be old fashioned, as I still like a book to look at. I find it ridiculous that if the kids miss a day of school, or don't absorb something in class, they have nothing to come home and look at when they're doing their homework. It ends up feeling like my homework, while I go Google things and find solutions, rather than just saying bring your book and working through the lesson again.

I'm sure we never did all this crap when I was a kid. I'm pretty sure I never learnt it to be able to forget it.

Yorkieabroad

Ah, that's the same one.

We have the same issues...plus, they use an "online" textbook, which is frequently either not available, or under a password protection and my dipstick has forgotten the password

The other thing that ticks me off is that a lot of their homework is on photocopied sheets (presumably that's not breaching copyright because they have bought an online subscription?) which are of such lousy quality that its sometimes hard to see things such as minus signs, or to differentiate between a "plus" sign and a "divided by" sign. He's already had one fail grade come through that was a result of us (ie he asked me and neither of us could read it) not being able to read the question. After that I told him in future to do the equations both ways in the event of any ambiguity. His teacher this year is a bit of a twat, and even seeing what he was doing, she went all Magnus Magnusson on him and still marked him down saying he was only allowed one bite at the cherry.

ChocolateBabz

I think I kept up with the dude until 8th grade but last years pre-ap geometry and this years pre-ap algrebra II I am about as much use as a chocolate watch.

Pulaski

Replace the parentheses with "x"

3(-2a) = 3 x-2a = -6a

(12)(3)(-a) = 12 x 3 x -a = -36a

(2)(-y)(5) = 2 x -y x 5 = -10y

Note "-'s " must be included in the calculation ..... if there is only one, the answer is negative, two cancel each other out, as do four and six. Any odd number of negatives has an overall negative product.

Michael

When the C++ programming language first came out, I took an evening C++ course at the local community college. The dumbass instructor had homework assignments to solve algebra and physics problems by writing C++ classes. One of the assignments was to write a C++ class to solve quadratic equations. It took me a lot longer to relearn quadratic equations than it did to write the C++ class to solve quadratic equations.

We started with nearly 50 students and only about 10 students were still attending class when the course was complete.

fulwood

Khan Academy on the web is fantastic for stuff like this.. It's free.. May want to check it out. Also the poster who put answers to replace with x symbol is correct.

Yorkieabroad

I'll second Khan Academy. All 3 of mine use it, 4th, 6th and 8th grade. Lot of good stuff on there.

Pulaski

Thank you.

SultanOfSwing

This is it. It's just straight multiplication, the only difference is the inclusion of the negative sign. Pretty easy, really.