Question

Use the distributive property to create an equivalent expression to 54+18x

Answer 1

18(x+3)

Just take out 18 from each term to get a binomial. Multiply what you factored out, 18, by the remaining binomial.

Answer 2

An equivalent expression to 54+18x, using the distributive property is 18(3+x)

Explanation:

In the problem we have the binomial (54+18x), and we are asked to use the distributive property, this means that we can find a factor wich is distributed in both terms of the binomial.

We know that any number, or in this case any polinomial (or binomial), can be multiplied times 1 and will stay the same number, and we only need to write this 1 in a way that could resolve our problem, in particular we can say that

`1=(18)/(18)`

then we can distribute the denominator, so we calculate:

`(54+18x)=1(54+18x)=(18)/(18)(54+18x)=18((54)/(18)+(18x)/(18))=18(3+x)`

And the equivalent expression to (54+18x) is 18(3+x).