help please? 4a - 3 - [3a - (2-a)] how do i open the square brackets? and then the parentheses.. and how do i solve this equation?

4a - 3 - [3a - (2 - a)]

Let's start simple. How about:

-(a + b)

You have the opposite of the sum of two values.

You can treat that negative as a -1 times the binomial:

-1 (a + b)

Then use distributive property to apply the -1 to both terms inside to get:

-a - b

So that's what you need to do here, twice. Back to your problem:

4a - 3 - [3a - (2 - a)]

We have to simplify the inner parenthesis first by doing the same thing I did in my example. The - (2 - a) turns into -2 + a, so you have:

4a - 3 - [3a - 2 + a]

Now simplify what's inside the braces:

4a - 3 - [4a - 2]

Now do it one more time with the minus in front of the braces:

4a - 3 - 4a + 2

then this simplifies to:

-1

-1