Exercise 12 Page 315

We have been given a sentence and we need to translate it into a numerical expression. Then we want to evaluate it.

We will first replace the words that are related to numbers. The first two words, One half corresponds to a fraction with 1 in the numerator and 2 in the denominator. One half → 1/2 Now, the expression from the last two words, five eights corresponds to a fraction with 5 in the numerator and 8 in the denominator. Note that right before these words we have a word negative, meaning that we have a minus sign - before the fraction. negative five eights → -5/8 Let's rewrite the sentence using what we found so far. One halfof negative five eights ⇓ 1/2of -5/8 Now, when we take a fraction of a number, this is the same as multiplying the fraction by that number. 1/2 of - 5/8 ⇒ 1/2 * (- 5/8) Finally, we want to evaluate the result. When we multiply fractions, we need to remember that the product of two fractions is equal to the product of the numerators divided by the product of the denominators. Let's find the given product!