How do you simplify -5(x-7)5(x7)?

1 Answer
Apr 14, 2018

-5x + 355x+35

Explanation:

The easiest way to solve this problem is to use the distributive property:

https://sites.google.com/a/d83.org/math-6/chapter-6/6-6-the-distributive-propertyhttps://sites.google.com/a/d83.org/math-6/chapter-6/6-6-the-distributive-property

Basically you multiply the number outside the parentheses by everything inside the parentheses.

color(blue)(-5)(color(orange)x color(green)(- 7))5(x7)

(color(blue)(-5) xx color(orange)x)(5×x) + (color(blue)(-5) xx color(green)(-7))+(5×7)

-5x + (+35)5x+(+35)

color(white)"xxxxxxxxx"xxxxxxxxxuarr remember that "negative" xx "negative" = "positive"negative×negative=positive. That's why 3535 is positive.

-5x + 355x+35