From the course: Preparing for the GMAT

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Multiplying expressions

Multiplying expressions

From the course: Preparing for the GMAT

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Multiplying expressions

- [Narrator] So multiplying expressions is a complex enough topic for us to devote an entire video to it. So let's take a look at a few things we need to know. Okay well what if we had a situation like this. X plus two squared, well we already know we can't just distribute that exponent. We have to actually write this out. X plus two times X plus two. The way to remember how to do this, if you don't know, is the acronym FOIL. So FOIL stands for first, outer, inner, and last. So what that means by first is I do X times X, those are the first numbers in each parenthesis. X times X is X squared, then I do the outer. So that would be X times two, would be positive two X. Then I would do the inner, which is this, two times X, plus another positive two X. Then I would do the last which is two times two, plus four. So I would combine these terms and I would end up with X squared plus four X plus four. So let's just look at one more example of this just to see what it would look like with…

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