11 [(x + 11)/9] - 9 The general idea is to do all the math you can do in the hopes of finding ways to combine all the terms of the expression. You're supposed to deal with things in parentheses first, then things in brackets. And you're supposed to treat things in parentheses like they are one term. In other words, showing (x + 11) divided by 9 means you divide x by 9 AND divide 11 by 9. So, let's deal with the parentheses first: 11 [(x + 11)/9] - 9 11 [x/9 + 11/9] - 9 Brackets also mean everything within them is to be treated as one term; so you multiply 11 times both the x/9 and the 11/9. 11 [(x + 11)/9] - 9 11 [x/9 + 11/9] - 9 11x/9 + 11x11/9 - 9, which is the same as 11x/9 + 121/9 - 9 To make combing the actual numbers simpler, change 9 to 81/9. This is called creating a "common denominator". If you have a common denominator, you can just do a subtraction: 11x/9 + 121/9 - 81/9 To combine the 121/9 and the - 81/9, think of it as (121 - 81)/9 = 40/9: 11x/9 + 40/9 Finally, just to write it in a simpler way, you can use the parentheses again to indicate that both the 11x and the 40 are to be divided by 9: (11x + 40)/9 I hope that makes some kind of logical sense to you.

Here is how we get there stepwise: 11[(x+11)/9]-9= 11[x/9+11/9]-9= 11x/9+121/9-9= 11x/9+121/9-81/9= 11x/9-40/9= (11x-40)/9. I think the problem you had was in step #4, where 9 is transformed into 81/9 to give a common denominator. +4