Can anyone plz help me with this question

Multiplying an even number of negative numbers gives an answer that is choose from:

Nick has box brads. he uses 4 brads for the first project. nick let’s b represent the original number of brads and finds that for the second project, the number of brads he uses is 8 more than half the difference of b and 4. write an expression to represent the number of brads he uses for the second project.

If the ratio of sum of the first m and n terms of an ap is m2 : n2 , show that the ratio of its mth and nth terms is (2m − 1) : (2n − 1).