How To: Apply the distributive property in math

To solve simple algebraic expressions you have to use different properties. Distributive property is one among them. To apply distributive property in a algebraic expression multiply each term inside the parenthesis by the outside term. In this way you are distributing the outside term to all the inside terms and removing the parenthesis. Hence it is called distributive property. After multiplying add the like terms to simplify it further. Care should be taken to ensure the proper sign changes if the outside term is negative. A negative term multiplied to a negative term is positive and a negative term multiplied to a positive term is negative in result. This video shows how to apply distributive property.