To fill a 9 gallon tank exactly halfway you'll need 4\(\frac{1}{2}\) gallons of fuel. Each fuel can holds 1\(\frac{1}{2}\) gallons so:

cans = \( \frac{4\frac{1}{2} \text{ gallons}}{1\frac{1}{2} \text{ gallons}} \) = 3

To add or subtract terms with exponents, both the base and the exponent must be the same. In this case they are so subtract the coefficients and retain the base and exponent:

3z³ - 1z³
(3 - 1)z³
2z³

If the tiger has consumed 117 pounds of food in 9 days that's \( \frac{117}{9} \) = 13 pounds of food per day. The tiger needs to consume 156 - 117 = 39 more pounds of food to reach 156 pounds total. At 13 pounds of food per day that's \( \frac{39}{13} \) = 3 more days.

The absolute value is the positive magnitude of a particular number or variable and is indicated by two vertical lines: \(\left|-5\right| = 5\). In the case of a variable absolute value (\(\left|a\right| = 5\)) the value of a can be either positive or negative (a = -5 or a = 5).

If 60% of the town's 45,000 voters cast ballots the number of votes cast is:

(\( \frac{60}{100} \)) x 45,000 = \( \frac{2,700,000}{100} \) = 27,000

The mayor got 58% of the votes cast which is:

(\( \frac{58}{100} \)) x 27,000 = \( \frac{1,566,000}{100} \) = 15,660 votes.