A math sentence involving multiple operations is evaluated according to the Order of Operations. Multiplication is done left to right.
(8) × (-6) × (-3)
= ((8) × (-6)) × (-3)
= (-48) × (-3)
= 144
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The associative and commutative properties of multiplication allow you to rearrange this to any convenient order. You can also remove factors of -1 from the negative numbers and deal with those separately, if you like.
8 × -6 × -3
= 8 × -1 × 6 × -1 × 3
= (-1)×(-1) × 8 × 6 × 3
= 1 × 8 × 6 × 3
= 8 × 6 × 3 . . . . . . 1 times anything is that thing. That's the multiplicative identity property.
= 3 × 6 × 8 . . . . . if you want. (Order for multiplication of numbers doesn't matter. It does matter when multiplying certain other things, like matrices or vectors.)
Those are variable not multiplication signs Solve the variables and see what the answer is I don't believe you can go any farther than it being 2x-3 unless you want a fraction.
