Distributive Property Worksheet: Free Download

Here’s how to do the Distributive Property

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The quick answer to What is the Distributive Property in Math?

The Distributive Property is an approach for solving expressions. The Distributive Property is utilized when you are given a constant outside of a set of parenthesis with no less than two terms within the parenthesis. When utilizing the Distributive Property you should take the outside term and distributive it to everything within the parenthesis. To do this you multiply the terms together. You can tell that you did Distributive Property accurately on the grounds that there are no parenthesis left in the expression.

5 Easy Steps to Answer Distributive Property Problems

1. When an expression has a term on the outside of a set of parenthesis you use the Distributive Property.
2. You take the term on the outside of the parenthesis and distribute it to everything on the inside of the parenthesis.
3. To distribute you must multiply the terms together.
4. Make sure you include the signs of the terms when multiplying them together.
5. You are finished when there are no parenthesis left.

 

Distributive Property Practice Problems Quiz

Watch the Short Video on our Distributive Property Worksheet

Watch our free video on how to do the Distributive Property. This video shows how to solve problems that are on our free Distributive Property worksheet 7th grade that you can get by submitting your email above.

Watch the free Distributive Property video on YouTube here: How to do Distributive Property Video

Video Transcript:

This video is about how to do the distributive property. You can get the 7th grade distributive property worksheet used in this video for free by clicking on the link in the description below. The first part in figuring out how to do the distributive property is understanding that the distributive property states that if you’re given an expression in the form of this expression, where you have a times the quantity b plus c, you can take this a and distribute it by multiplying it by everything inside of the parentheses.

In the case of this first example that gives us 5 times the quantity 5x minus 5. The distributive property states that you need to use a distributive law of multiplication to take the term that is on the outside of the parentheses and distribute it to everything inside of the parentheses using multiplication. We’re going to take this term that is on the outside of the parentheses and distribute it to everything inside the parentheses. We take this term in this case which is 5 and we multiply it times the first term inside of the parentheses which is 5x. Then we bring down the symbol in the middle which is our minus symbol and then we take the term on the outside which is 5 and multiply it times the second term on the inside which is also 5. Our 5 has now been distributed to both the 5x and the 5 inside of the parentheses. Now you follow order of operations, which is to multiply before you subtract. So, we’re going to multiply 5 times 5x and get 25x. Leep the sign in the middle the same, which is minus and then 5 times 5 which is 25.  25x and 25 are not like terms so you do not combine them. Our final solution is 25x minus 25.

Let’s do a couple practice problems on our distributive property worksheet. Jumping to the first problem on our distributive property works it gives us 2 times the quantity x minus 1. We know that we’re supposed to take the term that is outside the parentheses and distribute it through multiplication to everything inside of the parentheses. We’re going to take this 2 and we’re going to multiply it times the first term, in this case is x. We’re going to multiply it times x then we bring the symbol straight down that’s in the middle then we take the term which is on the outside, 2 again and we multiply it times the last term inside of the parenthesis which is 1. Finally, according to order of operations we simplify by doing multiplication before addition or subtraction. We do 2 times x which is 2x minus the sign in the middle stays the same and then 2 times 1 which is 2. Our final solution will be 2x minus 2.

Moving on to number three on our distributive property worksheet. This problem gives us negative 10 times the quantity x plus eight. Again, we take the term that is outside of the parentheses and we use multiplication to distribute it to everything that is on the inside of the parentheses. The term negative 10 is going to be multiplied by our first term inside of the parenthesis in this case is x. We bring down the plus symbol in the middle then we take negative 10 and multiply it by positive 8 which is our last term in the parentheses. Negative 10 times x is negative 10x and then negative 10 times 8 is negative 80. Our final solution is negative 10x minus 80.

The last problem we’re going to complete on our distributive property worksheet is number eight. This problem gives us negative seven times the quantity five x minus ten. We take this negative seven, just like we did in the other problems, and we distribute it to everything that is inside of the parentheses. In the case of this problem, we do negative 7 times 5x, that’s going to be the first thing we multiply by. The symbol in the middle comes down, which is minus, and then we do negative 7 again times in this case the last term is going to be 10. Then we simplify following order of operations negative 7 times 5x is negative 35 x. The symbol in the middle stays the same and then negative 7 times 10 is negative 70. Now what’s unique about this problem is that we have two negatives that are next to each other. When you have two negatives next to each other the two negatives cancel. We’re going to cancel them and they become a positive. Our final answer will be negative 35 x plus 70 because the two negatives cancel. Hopefully this video helped you better understand what is the distributive property in math. Try the practice problems on the Distributive Property quiz above or download the distributive property 7th grade worksheet and try those problems.