How do you multiply -5(a-2b) ?

1 Answer
Jul 10, 2016

-5(a-2b) = -5a+10b

Explanation:

color(blue)("The teaching bit")

The purpose of the brackets in this question is to group things.

Let me demonstrate:

Consider 3xx5 =15

This is 5+5+5 larr" Three lots of 5 all put together"
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But 5 can be written in many ways. Suppose we write 5 as 4 + 1

The 3xx5 is exactly the same as 3xx(4+1)

So we have 3 lots of (4+1) giving

(4+1)+(4+1)+(4+1)

4+4+4" "+1+1+1

Observe that we have 3 lots of everything inside the brackets.
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-5(a-2b) = -5a+10b