Video Transcript
Evaluate one-fourth plus three-fourths plus negative one-fourth.
In order to evaluate, we must follow order of operations. First, we evaluate inside parentheses, then exponents, and then multiplication or division whatever comes first left to right, and then addition and subtraction whatever comes first left to right.
So in our equation, we have parentheses. And then, we were adding. So we must first evaluate that inside the parentheses. So in order to add one-fourth plus three-fourths, we need to make sure they have a common denominator. And they do. They both have a denominator of four. So they have that in common.
So next, we will simply add the numerators, so one plus three. One plus three is four for the numerator and we keep the common denominator, our four. So now that we’ve evaluated everything inside the parentheses, we don’t have to write them down anymore. So we need to bring down the plus negative one-fourth.
So while it may have been tempting to reduce the four over four to be one, we’re still adding fractions. So we will need common denominators. And these both have a common denominator of four. So we’ll keep that.
And now, we need to add our numerators: four plus negative one. And four plus negative one is the same as four minus one, which is equal to three. And we keep our denominator of four.
Therefore, our final answer will be three-fourths.
