Skip to main content
Back

The Distributive Property definitions

Control buttons has been changed to "navigation" mode.
1/14
  • Distributive Property
    A rule connecting multiplication with addition or subtraction, enabling multiplication across all terms inside parentheses.
  • Parentheses
    Symbols used to group terms in expressions, indicating which operations should be performed together.
  • Variable
    A symbol representing an unknown value, often used in algebraic expressions to generalize mathematical relationships.
  • Constant
    A fixed value that does not change within an expression, often multiplied or added to variables.
  • Term
    A single part of an expression, which may be a number, a variable, or a product of both.
  • Coefficient
    A numerical factor multiplied by a variable in an algebraic term, indicating how many times the variable is counted.
  • Expression
    A mathematical phrase combining numbers, variables, and operations, but lacking an equality sign.
  • Addition
    An operation combining two or more values to produce their sum, often used inside parentheses in algebra.
  • Subtraction
    An operation finding the difference between values, treated as adding a negative in algebraic contexts.
  • Multiplication
    An operation scaling one value by another, distributed across terms inside parentheses using the distributive property.
  • Order of Operations
    A set of rules determining the sequence in which calculations are performed in mathematical expressions.
  • Simplification
    The process of rewriting an expression in a more concise form, often by removing parentheses and combining like terms.
  • Polynomial
    An expression consisting of multiple terms, each with variables raised to whole number exponents and coefficients.
  • Commutative Property
    A rule stating that the order of multiplication does not affect the result, allowing flexibility in distributing constants.