Question

Find the product of \[( - 1) \times ( - 2) \times (3) \times (4)\] .

Answer 1

Hint: We have to find the product of the given expression \[( - 1) \times ( - 2) \times (3) \times (4)\] . We solve this question using the concept of multiplication of terms having different signs and same signs . We will take the terms having the same sign and using the concept of multiplication of terms having the same sign , we will get a value for each pair . Then again using the concept of multiplication of terms having the same sign we will obtain the value of the product of the given expression


Complete step-by-step answer:
Given :
\[( - 1) \times ( - 2) \times (3) \times (4)\]
Let the product of the given expression is given as
\[P = ( - 1) \times ( - 2) \times (3) \times (4)\]
Now , we will make two pairs with the number having the same signs . So , the expression becomes as
\[P = \left[ {( - 1) \times ( - 2)} \right] \times \left[ {(3) \times (4)} \right]\]
Now using the concept of multiplication of terms having the same signs , we know that the product of two positive or negative terms is always a positive number .
Using the concept of multiplication of terms having same signs , the expression of product becomes
\[P = \left[ 2 \right] \times \left[ {12} \right]\]
Again using the same concept of multiplication of terms with same signs , we get the expression of product as
\[P = 24\]
Hence , the product of \[( - 1) \times ( - 2) \times (3) \times (4)\] is \[24\] .
So, the correct answer is “24”.

Note: We can also make the pairs of the terms having different signs and then we will solve the expression using the concept of multiplication of terms having different signs and on further solving we will get the product of the given expression . In both cases , we will get the same final answer . i.e. the product of the given expression is the same for both the cases .
We conclude that the product of two numbers having different signs always gives us a negative number as a result whereas the product of two numbers having the same signs always gives us a positive number as a result.