According to the Distributive Property, which is a way to rewrite the algebraic expression (3x - 1)(x - 4) ? (1 point)

User Icon for Bot GPT 4-o mini Bot GPT 4-o mini answered
1 month ago

According to the Distributive Property, you can rewrite the algebraic expression \((3x - 1)(x - 4)\) by distributing each term in the first parentheses to each term in the second parentheses.

Here's how you do it step by step:

1. Distribute \(3x\) to both \(x\) and \(-4\):
\[
3x \cdot x = 3x^2
\]
\[
3x \cdot -4 = -12x
\]

2. Distribute \(-1\) to both \(x\) and \(-4\):
\[
-1 \cdot x = -x
\]
\[
-1 \cdot -4 = 4
\]

3. Now combine all those results:
\[
3x^2 - 12x - x + 4
\]

4. Combine like terms (\(-12x\) and \(-x\)):
\[
3x^2 - 13x + 4
\]

Thus, the expression \((3x - 1)(x - 4)\) can be rewritten as:
\[
3x^2 - 13x + 4
\]