The Extended Distributive Property

The extended distributive property allows us to solve exercises with two sets of parentheses that are multiplied by eachother.

For example: $(a+1)\times(b+2)$

To find the solution, we will go through the following steps:

Step 1: Multiply the first term in the first parentheses by each of the terms in the second parentheses.
Step 2: Multiply the second term in the first parentheses by each of the terms in the second parentheses.
Step 3: Associate like terms.

$ab+2a+b+2$

Detailed explanation

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Test yourself on extended distributive property!

It is possible to use the distributive property to simplify the expression below?

What is its simplified form?

$$ (ab)(c d) $$

$$

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Exercises to practice the distributive property

$(x-4)\times (x-2) = x^2 - 2x - 4x + 8 = x^2 - 6x + 8$

$(x+3)\times (x+6) = x^2 + 6x + 3x + 18 = x^2 + 9x + 18$

The distributive property allows us to remove parentheses and simplify an expression, even if there is more than one set of parentheses.

In order to get rid of of the parentheses, we will multiply each term of the first parentheses by each term of the second parentheses, paying special attention to the addition/ subtraction signs.

For example:

$(5+8)\times (7+2)$

Using the distributive property, we can simplify the expression.

All we need to do is to multiply each of the terms in the first parentheses by each of the terms in the second parentheses:

$(5+8)\times (7+2) =$

$5\times 7+5\times 2+8\times 7+8\times 2 =$

$35+10+56+16 =$

$117$

Basic distributive property

Let's take a moment to remember our basic distributive property.

Below we can see the formula:

$a\times(b+c)=ab+ac$

Here, we have multiplied $a$ by each of the terms inside the parentheses, keeping the same order.

Extended distributive property

Now we will apply the same concept in the extended distributive property. This allows us to solve exercises with two sets of parentheses.

For example:
$(a+b)\times(c+d)=ac+ad+bc+bd$

How does the extended distributive property work?

Step 1: Multiply the first term in the first parentheses by each of the terms in the second parentheses.
Step 2: Multiply the second term in the first parentheses by each of the terms in the second parentheses.
Step 3: Associate like terms.

Example 1

Step 1: Multiply $A$ by each of the terms included in the second parentheses.

Step 2: Multiply $2$ by each of the terms included in the second parentheses.

Step 3: Order the terms and combine like terms, if any:

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Test your knowledge

Question 1

It is possible to use the distributive property to simplify the expression

$$ a(b+c) $$

Question 2

It is possible to use the distributive property to simplify the expression

$(a+b)(c\cdot g)$

Question 3

$$ (a+b)(c+d)= $$ ?

Example 2: What do we do with a minus sign?

So, what do we do when we see a minus sign in one or both of the parentheses? Do we do anything different?

The method is the same! The only difference is that we need to make sure to put out minus/ negative signs in the right places when we distribute.

It can helpful to remember that a "minus sign" is the same as saying "plus a negative number."

For example, $4-2=4+(-2)=2$

Let's look at the exercise:

Step 1: Multiply $A$ by each of the terms included inside the second parentheses.

Step 2: Multiply $5$ by each of the terms included inside the second parentheses.

Pay attention to the signs of each of the terms! For example, we will see that, $-5$ times $-3$ equals $+15$ .

In this case, there are no terms that we want to combine.

Example 3

Task:

Find the value of $X$ :

$(X+2)^2=(X+5)\times(X-2)$

Let's look at the left side of the equation and simplify:

$(X+2)^2=(X+2)\times(X+2)$

Now we can use the extended distributive property on each side of the equation.

Now the equation looks like this:

$(X+2)\times(X+2)=(X+5)\times(X-2)$

After applying the distributive property:

$X^2 + 2X + 2X + 4 = X^2 – 2X + 5X – 10$

Let's reduce, combine like terms and arrange the equation.

We will get:

$X = - 14$

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Do you know what the answer is?

Question 1

$$ (a+4)(c+3)= $$

Question 2

$$ (2x+y)(x+3)= $$

Question 3

$$ (x+13)(y+4)= $$

Exercises using the distributive property

Exercise 1

Assignment:

A painter has a canvas with the following dimensions:

$(23x+12)$ length

$(20x+7)$ width

What is the area the painter needs to paint?

Solution:

We multiply the length of the canvas by the width to find the area.

$(23x+12)\times(20x+7)=$

Multiply each term in the first parentheses by each term in the second parentheses.

$23x\times20x+23x\times7+12\times20x+12\times7=$

We solve accordingly

$460x^2+161x+240x+84=$

$460x^2+401x+84$

Answer:

$460x^2+401x+84$

Exercise 2

Task:

Find the area of the following rectangle:

Leave variables in your answer.

Exercise 2 Calculating the area of the rectangle

Solution:

To find the area we multiply the width by the length.

$3y\times(y+3z)=$

Multiply 3y by each of the terms in parentheses.

$3y\times y+3y\times3z=$

Solve accordingly

$3y^2+9yz$

Answer:

$3y^2+9yz$

Check your understanding

Question 1

$$ (x+y)(x-y)= $$

Question 2

It is possible to use the distributive property to simplify the expression?

If so, what is its simplest form?

$(x+c)(4+c) =\text{?}$

Question 3

$$ (7+b)(a+9)= $$

Exercise 3

Task:

$(3+20)\times(12+4)=$

Solution:

We multiply each of the terms in the first parentheses by the terms in the second parentheses.

$3\times12+3\times4+20\times12+20\times4=$

Solve accordingly

$36+12+240+80=$

We add everything together

$48+320=368$

Answer:

$368$

Exercise 4

Task:

$(12+2)\times(3+5)=$

Solution:

We multiply each of the terms in the first parentheses by the terms of the second parentheses.

$12\times3+12\times5+2\times3+2\times5=$

Solve accordingly

$36+60+6+10=$

We add everything together

$96+16=112$

Answer:

$112$

Do you think you will be able to solve it?

Question 1

$$ (x-6)(x+2)= $$

Question 2

Solve the following problem:

$$ (a+15)(5+a)= $$

Question 3

Solve the following problem:

$$ (x-8)(x+y)= $$

Exercise 5

Task:

$(7x+4)\times(3x+4)=$

Solution:

We multiply each of the terms of the first parentheses by the terms of the second parentheses.

$7x\times3x+7x\times4+4\times3x+4\times4=$

Solve accordingly

$21x^2+28x+12x+16=$

$21x^2+40x+16$

Answer:

$21x^2+40x+16$

Exercise 6

Task:

$(2x-3)\times(5x-7)$

We multiply each of the terms of the first parentheses by the terms of the second parentheses.

$2x\times5x+2x\times(-7)+(-3)\times5x+(-3)\times(-7)=$

Solve accordingly

$10x^2-14x-15x+21=$

$10x^2-29x+21$

Answer:

$10x^2-29x+21$

Test your knowledge

Question 1

Resolve -

$$ (x-3)(x-6)= $$

Question 2

Solve the following problem:

$$ (x-6)(x+8)= $$

Question 3

It is possible to use the distributive property to simplify the expression below?

What is its simplified form?

$$ (ab)(c d) $$

$$

Review questions

What is the distributive property of multiplication?

The distributive property of multiplication is a rule in mathematics that says that multiplying the sum of two (or more) numbers is the same as multiplying the numbers separately and adding/ subtracting them together.

Distributive property of multiplication over addition:

$a\times\left(b+c\right)=a\times b+a\times c$

Distributive property of multiplication over subtraction:

$a\times\left(b-c\right)=a\times b-a\times c$

What is the distributive property of division?

Just as in the distributive property of multiplication, the distributive property of division (also over addition or subtraction) helps us to simplify an expression.

We can express it as follows:

$\left(a+b\right):c=a:c+b:c$

Do you know what the answer is?

Question 1

It is possible to use the distributive property to simplify the expression

$$ a(b+c) $$

Question 2

It is possible to use the distributive property to simplify the expression

$(a+b)(c\cdot g)$

Question 3

$$ (a+b)(c+d)= $$ ?

What is the extended distributive property?

The extended distributive property uses the same concept as the basic distributive property to simplify expressions with two sets of parentheses.

Where is the extended distributive property used?

Example 1

Task:

Solve $\left(x+3\right)\left(x-8\right)=$

We will use the extended distributive property, multiplying each of the terms as follows:

$\left(x+3\right)\left(x-8\right)=x^2-8x+3x-24$

Reducing like terms we get

$\left(x+3\right)\left(x-8\right)=x^2-5x-24$

Answer

$x^2-5x-24$

Example 2

Task:

$\left(2x-1\right)\left(3x-5\right)=$

Using the extended distributive property we get:

$\left(2x-1\right)\left(3x-5\right)=6x^2-10x-3x+5$

Reducing like terms:

$\left(2x-1\right)\left(3x-5\right)=6x^2-13x+5$

Answer

$6x^2-13x+5$

Check your understanding

Question 1

$$ (a+4)(c+3)= $$

Question 2

$$ (2x+y)(x+3)= $$

Question 3

$$ (x+13)(y+4)= $$

Examples with solutions for Extended Distributive Property

Exercise #1

Solve the following problem:

$(x-6)(x+8)=$

Video Solution

Step-by-Step Solution

In order to simplify the given expression, open the parentheses using the extended distribution law:

$(\textcolor{red}{a}+\textcolor{blue}{b})(c+d)=\textcolor{red}{a}c+\textcolor{red}{a}d+\textcolor{blue}{b}c+\textcolor{blue}{b}d$

Note that in the formula template for the above distribution law, it is a given that the operation between the terms inside of the parentheses is addition. Furthermore the sign preceding the term is of great significance and must be taken into consideration;

Proceed to apply the above formula to the expression to open out the parentheses.

$(x-6)(x+8)\\ \downarrow\\ \big(\textcolor{red}{x}+\textcolor{blue}{(-6)}\big)(x+8)\\$ Let's begin then with opening the parentheses:

$\big(\textcolor{red}{x}+\textcolor{blue}{(-6)}\big)(x+8)\\ \textcolor{red}{x}\cdot x+\textcolor{red}{x}\cdot8+\textcolor{blue}{(-6)}\cdot x+\textcolor{blue}{(-6)}\cdot8\\ x^2+8x-6x-48$

To calculate the above multiplications operations we used the multiplication table as well as the laws of exponents for multiplication between terms with identical bases:

$a^m\cdot a^n=a^{m+n}$

In the next step we'll combine like terms which we define as terms where the variable (or variables ), in this case x, have identical exponents . (Note that in the absence of one of the variables from the expression, we'll consider its exponent as zero power due to the fact that raising any number to the zero power yields the result 1) Apply the commutative property of addition and proceed to arrange the expression from highest to lowest power from left to right (Note: treat the free number as having zero power):
$\textcolor{purple}{x^2}\textcolor{green}{+8x-6x}\textcolor{orange}{-48}\\ \textcolor{purple}{x^2}\textcolor{green}{+2x}\textcolor{orange}{-48}\\$ When combining like terms as shown above, we highlighted the different terms using colors, as well as treating the sign preceding the term as an inseparable part of it.

The correct answer is answer A.

Answer

$x^2+2x-48$

Exercise #2

Solve the following problem:

$(x+2)(x-4)=$

Video Solution

Step-by-Step Solution

In order to solve the given problem, we will use the FOIL method. FOIL stands for First, Outer, Inner, Last. This helps us to systematically expand the product of the two binomials:

Step 1: Multiply the First terms.

The first terms of each binomial are $x$ and $x$ . Multiply these together to obtain $x \times x = x^2$ .

Step 2: Multiply the Outer terms.

The outer terms are $x$ and $-4$ . Multiply these. together to obtain $x \times -4 = -4x$ .

Step 3: Multiply the Inner terms.

The inner terms are $2$ and $x$ . Multiply these together to obtain $2 \times x = 2x$ .

Step 4: Multiply the Last terms.

The last terms are $2$ and $-4$ . Multiply these together to obtain $2 \times -4 = -8$ .

Proceed to combine all these results together:

$x^2 - 4x + 2x - 8$

Finally, combine like terms:

Combine $-4x$ and $2x$ to obtain $-2x$ .

The expanded form of the expression is therefore:

$x^2 - 2x - 8$

Thus, the solution to the problem is $x^2 - 2x - 8$ , which corresponds to choice 1.

Answer

$x^2-2x-8$

Exercise #3

$(x-6)(x+2)=$

Video Solution

Step-by-Step Solution

To solve this problem, we need to multiply the binomials $(x-6)$ and $(x+2)$ using the distributive property (FOIL method):

First: Multiply the first terms: $x \cdot x = x^2$
Outer: Multiply the outer terms: $x \cdot 2 = 2x$
Inner: Multiply the inner terms: $-6 \cdot x = -6x$
Last: Multiply the last terms: $-6 \cdot 2 = -12$

Now, we have the terms: $x^2$ , $2x$ , $-6x$ , and $-12$ .
We combine the linear terms:

$x^2 + 2x - 6x - 12 = x^2 - 4x - 12$

This is the expanded form of the quadratic expression in standard form.
Therefore, the solution to the problem is $x^2 - 4x - 12$ .

Answer

$x^2-4x-12$

Exercise #4

$(x+y)(x-y)=$

Video Solution

Step-by-Step Solution

To solve this problem, we'll follow these steps:

Step 1: Identify the structure of the expression
Step 2: Apply the difference of squares formula
Step 3: Simplify the expression

Now, let's work through each step:
Step 1: The expression is $(x+y)(x-y)$ , which resembles the difference of squares. Step 2: Using the formula for the difference of squares, $(a+b)(a-b) = a^2 - b^2$ , we set $a = x$ and $b = y$ . Step 3: Applying the formula, we have:

$(x+y)(x-y) = x^2 - y^2$ .

Therefore, the solution to the problem is $x^2-y^2$ .

Answer

$x^2-y^2$

Exercise #5

$(3+20)\times(12+4)=$

Video Solution

Step-by-Step Solution

Simplify this expression paying attention to the order of arithmetic operations. Exponentiation precedes multiplication whilst division precedes addition and subtraction. Parentheses precede all of the above.

Therefore, let's first start by simplifying the expressions within the parentheses. Then we can proceed to perform the multiplication between them:

$(3+20)\cdot(12+4)=\\ 23\cdot16=\\ 368$

Therefore, the correct answer is option A.

Answer

368

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The Extended Distributive Property

Test yourself on extended distributive property!

Exercises to practice the distributive property

Example 1

Example 2: What do we do with a minus sign?

Example 3

Exercises using the distributive property

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

Exercise 5

Exercise 6

Review questions

What is the distributive property of multiplication?

What is the distributive property of division?

What is the extended distributive property?

Where is the extended distributive property used?

Example 1

Example 2

Examples with solutions for Extended Distributive Property

Exercise #1

Video Solution

Step-by-Step Solution

Answer

Exercise #2

Video Solution

Step-by-Step Solution

Answer

Exercise #3

Video Solution

Step-by-Step Solution

Answer

Exercise #4

Video Solution

Step-by-Step Solution

Answer

Exercise #5

Video Solution

Step-by-Step Solution

Answer

More Questions

Extended Distributive Property