What is 2 and 12 minus 1 and 34 in simplest form?

Answer 1

When we see the word "and" here, we read it as "plus" in this application. Your question is, "What is 2 + 12 minus 1 + 34?" That is 2 + 12 - 1 + 34 =? We have an immediate problem in that we need to discover what to do first. We have no instructions except the English language used to write the question. In a "run on expression" like this where no parens set out the order in which we do things, we follow the math rule that says we "multiply, divide, add and subtract" to find answers to arithmatic expressions that have no other things like roots and powers. Here is the way it sets up when we do the addition before the subtraction, as math rules dictate: 2 + 12 - 1 + 34 = (2 + 12) - (1 + 34) = (14) - (35) = 14 - 35 = -21 We're subtracting a larger positive number from a smaller one, so our answer will be negative.