How do you use the distributive property to rewrite and evaluate $2(6+10)$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2017-04-30T20:47:26

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The left distributive property of multiplication over addition tells us that for any $a$ , $b$ and $c$ :

$a(b+c) = ab+ac$

There is also a right distributive property:

$(a+b)c = ac+bc$

In our example, we can use the left distributive property with $a=2$ , $b=6$ and $c=10$ as follows:

$2(6+10) = (2*6) + (2*10) = 12+20 = 32$

How do you use the distributive property to rewrite and evaluate 2(6+10)2(6+10)?