Jon's Responses in WyzAnt Answers

I would first get rid of the fractions by multiplying everything by 11x (the denominator):

11x(6/11x + 4 = 2/11x + 16)        giving us

6 + 44x = 2 + 176x                        see how much easier this looks now :) Now bring the 176x and 6 over to their opposite sides (easy way to do this is think 176x is positive on the right, so its negative on the left... just move it over and flip the sign :)

-132x = -4 so x = 4/132 = 1/33

FINAL ANSWER x = 1/33

The way I think of this is realizing that its all multplication.  So just stick all the corresponding parts (similar to like terms when adding, but this is multiplying) together and find their products.

3 times 2 a = 3•2a or (3)(2a) or 3(2a).... this could go on.  For these problems, just multpily numbers with numbers and variable with variables.  This is the quickest way to think about these problems.

3 and 2 have a product of 6.  So the answer is 6a. 

HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES TO HELP YOU GET WHAT IM SAYING HERE:

1) 4 times 5xy = 20xy

2) 5t(6t²) = 30t³

3) 1/2(4a)15a = 30a²

What Apratim mentioned is spot on, but here are some links that may help:

http://math2.org/math/geometry/areasvols.htm

http://math.about.com/od/formulas/ss/surfaceareavol.htm

VIDEO: http://www.khanacademy.org/math/geometry/basic-geometry/v/cylinder-volume-and-surface-area

Hope this helps. GOOD LUCK!

So yes, the FOIL method works:

"3x(x) + 3x(4) + 2x + 2(4)
3x²+ 12x + 2x + 8
3x2 + 14x + 8"   -Stephanie P.

Though many students cannot use methods such as FOIL because if confuses them even more.  SO, another way to go about this is using what you know about the Distributive Property. The only difference here is that you will apply the Distributive Property TWICE. Once for "3x" and once for "2" : 

3x(x+4) + 2(x+4)... do you see why this works? Again, its kind of like the distributive property where (x+4) is distributed to the 3x AND the 2.

So we simplify: 3x(x+4) + 2(x+4) = 3x²+12x + 2x + 8 = 3x² +14x + 8. DONE!

The distributive property is multiplication. If you can multiply, you can do this.  The only different is you have to multiply TWICE.  This is where people get stumped. So many times while teaching I see students pull one of these:  

2(x - 5) = 2x - 5   UGH... WRONG. This student did not DISTRIBUTE.  Think about what distribute means.... to hand something out evenly amongst a crowd of people, or in this case, several terms.  YOU MUST DISTRIBUTE THE OUTSIDE TERM TO BOTH OF THE INSIDE TERMS SEPARATELY. DO NOT FORGET THE ac part in this formula:

a(b+c) = ab +

Hope this helps.  Just remember, you're merely multiplying, but make sure you DISTRIBUTE that outside term.

ac