the distributive property is when you have, for example, 2(1+3), and you multiply the 2 by both terms and add them together. so 2(1+3) = 2(1) + 2(3) = 2 + 6 = 8.
so with 16 + 48, to show the distributive property, you could divide by any common factor of 16 and 48. some correct ways to do this are:
16 + 48 = 2(8 + 24)
16 + 48 = 4(4 + 12)
16 + 48 = 8(2 + 6)
16 + 48 = 16(1 + 3)
you're just dividing 16 and 48 by the outside term to get the 2 numbers in the ( )