Question

when do you use the distributive property in algebra?

Answer 1

When you have a term in parenthesis and a number outside the parenthesis

Answer 2

like 5(x+3)

Answer 3

You have to multiply the 5 to every term in the parenthesis, so you'd have 5x-15

Answer 4

does it also depend on either you are asked to simplify or evaluate?

Answer 5

simplify= you can't find out what exactly x is, but you can make the problem simpler.

evaluate= you can find the exact value of x

Answer 6

in my example, I simplified

Answer 7

If the problem was, say, 5(x-3)=10, then you could solve for x. x=5