What is the Distributive Property

Answer 1

Distributive: a(b + c) = ab + ac.

For example: 8(5 + 4) = 8*5 + 8*4 = 40 + 32 = 72 = 8*9

The distributive property, when applied to numbers seems to be of very little importance, but in fact, it is a very powerful tool in dealing with many mathematical operations and allows the proofs of many basic properties of real numbers. For example, (-a)(-b) = ab.