How do you simplify #6x+3(x-5)-2(x-2)#?
1 Answer
Sep 5, 2015
Explanation:
You need to use the distributive property of multiplication to expand the two parantheses.
In your case, the number that's in front the the paranthesis will be distributed to both the terms in the parathesis. For the first paranthesis, you have
This is equivalent to saying that
#3 * (x - 5) = 3 * x + 3 * (-5)#
The same approach can be applied to the second paranthesis, where
#-2 * (x-2) = -2 * x - 2 * (-2)#
This means that you can write
#6x + 3 * x + 3 * (-5) - 2 * x - 2 * (-2)#
#6x + 3x - 15 - 2x + 4#
Add the like terms to get the final version of the expression
#7x - 11#
