The distributive property tells us how to solve expressions in the form of a (b + c). The distributive property is sometimes called the distributive law of multiplication and division.

What is the distributive property? The distributive property says that in a multiplication problem, when one factor is rewritten as the sum of two numbers, the product doesn't change.

Using the distributive property can help you figure out multiplication facts that you forget. For example, if you remember your 2’s and 5’s but forget your 7’s, you can use this property to help you figure out …

This property says that when we multiply a number by a sum (or difference) of two or more numbers, we can multiply this number by each number in the sum (or difference), then add (or subtract) the products.

Explore the commutative, associative, and identity properties of multiplication.

Practice decomposing the factors in multiplication problems and see how it affects the product.

Learn how to apply the distributive law of multiplication over addition and why it works. This is sometimes just called the distributive law or the distributive property.

Learn about the properties of matrix multiplication (like the distributive property) and how they relate to real number multiplication.

Instead, we're just going to use the distributive property to actually try to calculate this thing. So first, what I'm going to do-- let me rewrite 87. So this is the same thing as 87. But instead of writing 63 like …

Practice applying the distributive property to algebraic expressions.