Distributive property

Japanese school year: Junior high 1

What you learn

You will learn how to remove parentheses by multiplying each term inside by the outer value using the distributive property. This technique is widely used to simplify algebraic expressions and solve equations. Understanding basic multiplication rules and combining like terms will make this topic much easier to master.

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Key points

This distributive property expands expressions by removing parentheses. The outer factor $a$ is multiplied by each term, $b$ and $c$ , inside the parentheses.

a(b + c) = ab + ac

This distributive formula expands expressions containing subtraction. The factor $a$ is multiplied by both $b$ and $c$ , preserving the minus sign between them.

a(b - c) = ab - ac

This distributive rule applies when multiplying a sum by a factor $c$ from the right. Each term inside, $a$ and $b$ , is multiplied by $c$ .

(a + b)c = ac + bc

This distributive rule expands a subtraction multiplied by $c$ from the right. Multiply both $a$ and $b$ by $c$ , keeping the subtraction between the products.

(a - b)c = ac - bc

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Practice 1Coming soon