How do you simplify #(x + 2)(x - 2)#?
1 Answer
May 7, 2018
Explanation:
Use the distributive property to multiply both terms in the first set of parenthesis by the terms in the second set:
First the
Now the
We came up with four terms:
Simplify the expression by adding the middle terms, and we get just
This is a special kind of binomial (a binomial is an expression with two terms) called a difference of squares. Since
-(
Here's more about difference of squares: https://www.mathsisfun.com/definitions/difference-of-squares.html