First find the subtotal - this is the total cost of all items before tax.
$2.50 + $8.75 + $3.00 + $10.25 = $24.50
The 6% tax is applied to the subtotal - this is essentially adding 6% of the subtotal to the subtotal. 6% of the subtotal is
0.06 * $24.50 = $1.47
so the tax is $1.47. (This was done without using the distributive property.)
Computed another way, we can instead apply the 6% tax to all items individually:
0.06 * $2.50 = $0.15
0.06 * $8.75 = $0.525
0.06 * $3.00 = $0.18
0.06 * $10.25 = $0.615
Then we total this to find the total tax:
$0.15 + $0.525 + $0.18 + $0.615 = $1.47
(with the distributive property)
- - -
In both cases, we're computing
0.06 * ($2.50 + $8.75 + $3.00 + $10.25)
Without the distributive property, the idea is to simplify the terms being added first, then multiplying that by the tax rate.
With the distributive property, we distribute the tax rate to each item, then add those products together.