The even number of minus signs means the product will be positive. A factor of 3 can be removed to simplify the product. As usual, the numerator of the product is the product of numerators, and the denominator of the product is the product of denominators.
The average rate of change is also known as the slope. If we are looking to find the average rate of change between x = -1 and x = 2, in order to find the slope between those 2 x values, we need the y's that go along with them. Fill in -1 for x in the function and solve for y: . That means that the coordinate is (-1, 0). Fill in 2 for x in the function and solve for y: . The coordinate there is (2, -3). Now we can set up the slope formula to find the average rate of change between those 2 points: . Therefore, the average rate of change between x = -1 and x = 2 is -1