steps to solve5x+3-2x-8+(-6x)+(-12)=

Question

please help on how to show steps. I get stuck on positives and negatives

Answer 1

When you have a + or - directly outside of parenthesis it means that whatever is inside of the parenthesis needs to be multiplied by positive (+) or negative (-) 1

in this problem there are two places where we need to do that

5x+3-2x-8+(-6x)+(-12)

in yellow positive 1 times -6x is -6x

in green positive 1 times -12 is -12

so we can rewrite this as

5x+3-2x-8-6x-12

now we can combine all of the x terms and all of the number terms

5x-2x-6x  =  -3x

3-8-12   =    -17

-3x-17