Algebra › How to use FOIL in the distributive property
Foil:
First:
Outside:
Inside:
Last:
Simplify the following expression using the FOIL method:
Using the FOIL method is simple. FOIL stands for First, Outside, Inside, Last. This is to help us make sure we multiply every term correctly looking at the terms inside of each parentheses. We follow FOIL to find the multiplied terms, then combine and simplify.
First, stands for multiply each first term of the seperate polynomials. In this case, .
Inner means we multiply the two inner terms of the expression. Here it's .
Outer means multiplying the two outer terms of the expression. For this expression we have .
Last stands for multiplying the last terms of the polynomials. So here it's .
Finally we combine the like terms together to get
.
Multiply
Using the FOIL method:
Use FOIL to distribute the following:
Make sure you keep track of negative signs when doing FOIL, especially when doing the Outer and Inner steps.
Use FOIL to distribute the following:
When the 2 terms differ only in their sign, the -term drops out from the final product.
:
Expand:
Use the FOIL (First Outer Inner Last) method:
F:
O:
I:
L:
Put the terms together:
Simplify by combining like terms:
Expand and then simplify:
Use the FOIL (First Outer Inner Last) method.
To start, focus on the first terms and multiply them together:
Next, multiply the last terms, and
, to get
.
Finally, multiply the outside and inside terms, which should give you and
.
Combine the like terms:
This gives you the final answer, .
If instead your answer was , you simply forgot to subtract
at the end. If you got a different answer choice, you probably made a mistake with the signs when multiplying out the FOIL.
Simplify the expression below.
Use the distributive property to simplify the expression. In general, .
Now we can begin to combine like terms through multiplication.
We cannot simplify further.