Final answer:
When we multiply both sides of the equation a - b = 3 by 6, we use the distributive property to get 6a - 6b = 18.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student is asking a question related to algebra, specifically about the operation of scaling an equation. If the original equation is a - b = 3, and we multiply both sides of the equation by 6, the result is 6a - 6b. This process is based on the distributive property of multiplication over subtraction. To solve this, we take the original equation and apply multiplication to both sides, which gives us:
6 × (a - b) = 6 × 3
Expanding the left side with the distributive property:
6a - 6b = 18
This means that 6a - 6b will be equal to 18 when given that a - b = 3.