Expansion Intuition Math Example 4

Follow the full solution, then compare it with the other examples linked below.

Example 4

medium
Expand (a+b)2(a + b)^2.

Solution

  1. 1
    (a+b)(a+b)=a2+ab+ba+b2=a2+2ab+b2(a+b)(a+b) = a^2 + ab + ba + b^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b^2.
  2. 2
    This is the perfect square trinomial identity.

Answer

a2+2ab+b2a^2 + 2ab + b^2
The identity (a+b)2=a2+2ab+b2(a+b)^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b^2 is used throughout algebra. The middle term 2ab2ab is often forgotten.

About Expansion Intuition

Understanding algebraic expansion as the process of applying the distributive property to multiply out factors and remove parentheses.

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More Expansion Intuition Examples

Example 1 easy

Expand [formula].

Example 2 medium

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Example 3 easy

Expand [formula].

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