In words: If one-third of z is 4, then z must be 3 × 4, or 12. Words are nice, but a bit long. Let's stick with numbers.
In symbols: is the same thing as . One of them just has an additional set of parentheses. We can rewrite the equation and multiply both sides by the multiplicative inverse of , which is 3:
.
is the same thing as 
. One of them just has an additional set of parentheses. We can rewrite the equation and multiply both sides by the multiplicative inverse of 
, which is 3:
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