A farmer sold 54 pumpkins the first weekend of a fall festival and 42 pumpkins the second weekend.

Question

Which expression uses the distributive property to show equivalent expressions for this situation?
54 + 42 = (3)(18) + (6)(7)
54 + 42 = (9)(10) + 6
54 + 42 = 90 + 6
54 + 42 = 6(9 + 7)

Answer 1

The correct expression that uses the distributive property to show equivalent expressions for the situation is:

54 + 42 = 6(9 + 7)

This is because you can factor out the common factor of 6 from both 54 (which is 6 times 9) and 42 (which is 6 times 7), allowing you to express the sum in terms of the distributive property.