Year 9 Interactive Maths - Second Edition

Distributive Law

Consider the expression a(b + c).

This expression represents the area of the rectangle of length b + c and width a.  So, this expression can be represented as:

This can be split up into two parts as follows:

Now, the sum of the areas of the rectangles = ab + ac.

This suggests that:

This is called the Distributive Law.

Example 1

Solution:

Example 2

Solution:

Example 3

Solution:

Example 4

Solution:

Example 5

Solution:

Key Terms

distributive law

Study Another Topic in Chapter 1: The Distributive Law

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