Which equality demonstrates the distributive property?

Which equality demonstrates the distributive property?

• A. 3(5+2) = 3(5) + 3(2)
• B. 3(5+2) = 3(5) - 3(2)
• C. 3(5+2) = 3(5) + 2(3)
• D. 3(5+2) = 3

Answer: (A)

Distributive property means you spread the outside factor to each addend inside the parentheses. For 3(5+2), distributing the 3 gives 3×5 + 3×2. That equals 15 + 6 = 21, the same as the left side. This is the exact pattern the property describes: multiply the outside number by each term inside the sum and then add the results. The other forms either use subtraction, swap which factor multiplies which addend, or produce a clearly different value, so they don’t demonstrate the distributive pattern as it’s written.

Distributive property means you spread the outside factor to each addend inside the parentheses. For 3(5+2), distributing the 3 gives 3×5 + 3×2. That equals 15 + 6 = 21, the same as the left side. This is the exact pattern the property describes: multiply the outside number by each term inside the sum and then add the results. The other forms either use subtraction, swap which factor multiplies which addend, or produce a clearly different value, so they don’t demonstrate the distributive pattern as it’s written.