Question

at the theater one section of seats has eight rows with 12 seats in each row in the center of each of the first three rows are for broken seats that cannot be used how many seats can be used in this section

Answer 1

first multiply 12 by 8 to get 96
that is the total amount of seats including the broken ones. then multiply 3 by 4 to get the section of broken seats. 3 being the amount of rows that have broken seats an 4 is the amount of broken seats per row. you wind up with 12 broken seats.
Now subtract 12 from 96 to get 84 functional seats

Answer 2

1) 12X8=96 total seats

2) the center seats of the first three rows are broken.
--> 12/2 = 6
--> since 6 is not the exact center, you would have to consider the center seats as seat#6 and seat#7

3) so, that would mean 2broken seats per row
--> 3X2 = 6broken seats

4) 96 – 6 = 90

Therefore, there are 90 working seats in that section.