Avoid These Algebra MISTAKES – Distributive Property

How to use the Distributive Property in Algebra and Mathematics.

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TC Math Notes

[Steve_Stowers]

The important thing to remember about the distributive property is that it's a fact about how multiplication and addition are related. I think many students think it's about "removing parentheses, " which is why they mistakenly apply it in situations like (a + b)^n or sin(a + b).

[tomtke]

The beauty of PARENTHESES which is a container or collection of items...
As an example... if I went to the corner store and bought
- One bag of chips 1-C
- Two candy bars 2-B
- Three slurpees 3-S
- Four lottery tickets 4-L
I bought a total of 1+2+3+4= 10 items
and the next four customers bought the exact same (40 items total)... how many of each were sold to all five?

inside the parentheses a.k.a. container:
(1C + 2B + 3S + 4L)
and five people bought them, me and four others:
5(1C+2B+3S+4L)
=
5C+10B+15S+20L
or a total of: 50 items

[mr.mxyzptlks]

Aha, the abc conjecture again 😜. Seriously though, this applies to the algebra everyone learns in grade school. It would be interesting to see a college level example, likely post BS, or in a math major, of algebras, yes there are more than one 😎, where this law does not apply. I realize the prerequisites are a lot, but maybe a simple example without diving into groups and rings too much?

[danieldennis]

It's ab+AC but I suppose people make mistakes

[duggydugg]

got the ans ok.. didn't know the name .. distributor property... bin out of sch over half century