Well, the last part if your sentence, "to show the sum of the two areas of flowers?", is irrelevant to the equation. Let's focus on just the equation: 16 + 12 = 4(_ + 3). Though I have no idea what the apostrophe means, I'll assume you meant to put an '*' or asterisk, meaning multiply. Firstly, whenever you have a variable, or a number you want to solve for, replace the blank with a letter like x. It would look like this: 16 + 12 = 4(x + 3). Using PEMDAS or Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply, Divide, Addition, Subtraction, let's address our parentheses. To solve the parentheses, simply multiple 4 with both x and 3 like so: 4(x + 3) = 4x + 12. Our equation will come out something like this: 16 + 12 = 4x + 12. Next, we can subtract 12 from both sides to simplify our equation: 16 = 4x. From there, divide both sides by 4 and you will get: 4 = x or x = 4. That's your answer! If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
