How do you multiply: #(8x + 3)(4x + 7)#?

1 Answer
Alan P.
Apr 27, 2015

There are several methods for multiplying two binomials:

Method 1: Divide and conquer using the Distributive Property
#(8x+3)(4x+7)#
#=8x(4x+7)+3(4x+7)#
#=(32x^2 +56x)+(12x+21)#
#=3x^2+68x+21#

Method 2: FOIL
FOIL is an acronym to help remember how to combine the terms of two binomials when they are multiplied together.
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Method 3: Tabular Multiplication
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Methods 1 and 3 can easily be expanded to trinomials and beyond; FOIL is restricted to binomial multiplications.

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