Pittsburgh Business Daily

How do you distribute in math?

It has been a long time since I needed to distribute numbers in math. I remember using the F.O.I.L method but I do not really remember how it works. Could someone please explain it to me and give me a simple example?

Public Comments

1. Well plain distributing is just like 4(x + 3) which would be 4x + 12 but talking about FOIL you just follow the order first, outside, inside, last like (x + 2) (x + 5) would be (x2) + 5x + 2x + 10 or x2 + 7x + 10 (x2 is x squared, by the way) hope this helps!
2. The distribution property is defined as: a(b+c) = ab+ac FOIL stands for First Outer Inner Last. It works likeso: (a+b)(c+d)= (ac+ad+bc+bd) Example: (x+2)(x-5)= x*x + x*(-5) + x*(2) + (2)(-5)= x^2 -5x +2x -10 x^2 -3x -10
3. F.O.I.L is a method for multiplying two binomials. It stands for: First Outside Inside Last For example, If you're trying to multiply (x+3) and (2x+7): First - x * 2x = 2x^2 Outside - x * 7 = 7x Inside - 3 * 2x = 6x Last - 3 * 7 = 21 So the answer is (x+3)(2x+7)= 2x^2 + 13x + 21
4. (y+4)(y+5) =y*y+y*5+4*y+4*5 =y^2+5y+4y+20 =y^2+9y+20