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.
enter image source here

Method 3: Tabular Multiplication
enter image source here

Methods 1 and 3 can easily be expanded to trinomials and beyond; FOIL is restricted to binomial multiplications.

Related questions
See all questions in Multiplication of Polynomials by Binomials
Impact of this question
4518 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License