Evaluating expressions? :)

[polkadotprincess19]

I'm in Algebra 2 and I'm having a lot of trouble with it so far I'm using the Saxon Algebra 2 book

I'm having trouble with this problem I would really appreciate some help

Evaluate: ab - a(a - b^0) if a = -2 and b = -1/2

Thank you!!

 

[pka]

I'm in Algebra 2 and I'm having a lot of trouble with it so far I'm using the Saxon Algebra 2 book
I'm having trouble with this problem I would really appreciate some help Evaluate: ab - a(a - b^0) if a = -2 and b = -1/2

If \(\displaystyle b\not= 0\) then \(\displaystyle b^0= 1\).

 

[Mrspi]

I'm in Algebra 2 and I'm having a lot of trouble with it so far I'm using the Saxon Algebra 2 book

I'm having trouble with this problem I would really appreciate some help

Evaluate: ab - a(a - b^0) if a = -2 and b = -1/2

Thank you!!

Ok, you can START by looking at the original expression, and realizing that b^0 = 1 for all values of b which are not equal to 0.

So...now you have this:

ab - a(a - 1)

or, using the distributive property,

ab - a^2 + a

At this point, you can substitute the values give for a and b:

a = -2
b = -1/2

so....
ab - a^2 + a = (-2)(-1/2) - (-2)^2 + (-2)

Do the arithmetic.