Mathematics Grade 8
Thursday, 29 December 2011
Simplifying Expressions - Removing Brackets
Algebraic expressions can contain brackets. In order to simplify these kind of expressions, you may need to remove the brackets.
The video lesson below shows you the basics that you need to know when removing brackets.
Example: Remove the brackets and simplify the following expression
.
Step 1:
First, let's remove the brackets in
-(5x -3)
.
Step 2:
Multiply
-1
and
5x
together.You will get
-5x
. Note that "-" is the same as "-1").
Step 3:
Now, multiply
-1
and
-3
together. You will get
+3
.
Step 4
: Put back -5x +3 into the expression. Next, we remove the brackets in
2(4x -2)
.
Step 5:
Now, multiply
2
and
4x
together. You will get
+8x
.
Step 6:
Now, multiply
2
and
-2
together. You will get
-4
.
Step 7:
Put back
8x -4
into the expression. The expression now becomes:
Notice that this expression has like terms. Therefore, let's arrange the like terms together. The expression now becomes:
Step 8:
Now, simplify the expression by adding
+3
and -
4
. You will get
-1
.
Step 9
: Now, simplify the expression by adding
+8x
and
-5x
. You will get
3x
.
Step 10:
The expression becomes
3x-1
. There is no more like terms, therefore this is the simplest expression.
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