What is the distributive property of 12+20

Question

i am doing khan academy and i need help with the distributive property. i am in 7th grade if that helps!!

Answer 1

The distributive property states that 

 

a*(b + c) = a*b + a*c 

 

You can use the distributive property in reverse to factor out a common factor from the sum of 2 numbers.  If you realize that 12 = 4*3 and 20 = 4*5 then you can write  

 

12 + 20 = 4*3 + 4*5 = 4*(3 + 5)