How is 1/2 + 1/4 solved differently than 1/2 + 1/3

Need solving this second acceleration problem.

Monitors manufactured by tsi electronics have life spans that have a normal distribution with a standard deviation of 1800 hours and a mean life span of 20,000 hours. if a monitor is selected at random, find the probability that the life span of the monitor will be more than 17,659 hours. round your answer to four decimal places.

The angles in a triangle are represented by 5x, 8x, and 2x+9. what is the value of ? a.10.8 b.11.4 c.9.7 d.7.2