Answer: The distributive property is a property where there is a coefficient/number, that is being multiplied to a group of numbers enclosed in parentheses. The coefficient can be distributed/multiplied to the numbers in the parentheses individually or after solving the expression in it.
Explanation:
You can spot when the distributive property is used when you see a number in front of a group of numbers, such as these examples (in bold):
1. 4(5 + 6) = 46 , in this problem you can solve 5+6 before multiplying it by 4, or multiply 4*5 and 4*6 and then add it.
2. 2(x-3) = 12 , in this situation x is the unknown variable so you must distribute the 2 individually, so the result would look like: (2*x) + (2*-3) -> 2x - 6 = 12