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Expressions and manipulation
Lesson 2 of 13
Standard practice

Expanding brackets

Objective. Expand single and double brackets.

  1. 1. Learn
  2. 2. Worked example
  3. 3. Practice
  4. 4. Feedback
  5. 5. Continue

Learn: the key idea

Every term inside the bracket is multiplied by every term outside it. For double brackets, each of the two terms multiplies each of the other two.

Worked example

Expand (x + 3)(x − 5).

Expand (x + 3)(x − 5)
Illustrated card showing Expand (x + 3)(x − 5)
  1. 1x × x = x², x × −5 = −5x.
  2. 23 × x = 3x, 3 × −5 = −15.
  3. 3Collect: −5x + 3x = −2x.

Answer: x² − 2x − 15

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