Maria has five orange, seven green, three red, and nine blue toothpicks in a bag. if maria randomly selects one toothpick out of the bag, what is the probability it will be red or blue?

Well you add them all together to get 24 and then add blue and red to get 12 so 12/24 which is 1/2 so you have a 50 ,50 chance

First use distributive property on both sides of the equation.
-9(-16 - f) = 4(1 - 3f)
144 + 9f = 4 - 12f
Then isolate f on one side of the equation:
3f = -140
f = 46.67 --> (which is equal to -140/3)
I'm sorry I couldn't help more. I don't know why it's wrong. Maybe try putting in it decial form instead.