What Does Evaluate Imply in Math Problems?

[Gringo123]

What does the word mean when you are presented with a question like this?

Evaluate 3 1/3 x 1 1/5

Is it simply asking us to work out the answer to the sum?

 

[radou]

A sum? Isn't this a product of fractions? In words, three wholes and one third times one whole and one fifth?

 

[Mark44]

What does the word mean when you are presented with a question like this?

Evaluate 3 1/3 x 1 1/5

Is it simply asking us to work out the answer to the sum?

As Radou noted, this is a product, not a sum. The two numbers are mixed numbers (a whole number plus a fraction), which are not very useful for calculations. Convert each of the mixed numbers to an improper fraction, and then multiply, using the rules of fraction multiplication.

 

[Gringo123]

Hi Mark
Thanks once again fior helping out.
Does that mean the solution is as follows?
10/3 x 6/5 = 60/15 = 4
When the question says, "Evaluate", I guess it just means "work out the answer"?

 

[HallsofIvy]

Yes, "evaluate" simply means "do the arithmetic".

And, radou and Mark44, "sum" is a common Britishism for any arithmetic problem.