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Use the distributive property to write 21+12 as a product

User Huliax
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1 Answer

23 votes
23 votes

Answer:

3(7 +4)

Explanation:

Both numbers have a factor of 3, which means we can factor out that value.

Distributive property

The distributive property of multiplication over addition can be represented by the formula ...

a(b +c) = ab +ac

Application

In this case, we can rewrite the sum so that the common factor of 3 is visible:

21 +12 = 3·7 +3·4

Using the above form, we can see the correspondence ...

  • a=3
  • b=7
  • c=4

This means we can rewrite the sum as ...

21 +12 = 3(7 +4)

User Chris Cook
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