6.5.5 The Distributive Property

You will notice in the given example to the left that the number outside of the parenthesis (the 2) is shared with the 7 and the 4 via multiplication. What they're really doing is multiplying the 2 by both 7 and by 4 and then adding it together.

In this example, we can use the distributive property to take apart 4 and 1/3 into two separate pieces. When can then distribute(share) the 9 to both the 4 and to the 1/3 as well. We can then multiply and add to get our final answer.

The distributive property has uses in Algebra as well. Here is just a small example of how it can be used.