Table of Contents
- Expansion of Brackets
- Summary
- What’s Next?
In our previous segment, we learnt how using brackets helps us solve mathematical problems. In this segment, we will learn an alternate method of solving problems, by expanding brackets.
What is expansion of brackets?
Expanding a bracket is nothing but multiplying the term outside the brackets, with every term inside the brackets.
For example: 2 x (35 + 55)
Using BODMAS, this can be solved as
2 x (35 + 55) = 2 x (90)
= 180
Let us now see how we can solve this same example by expansion of brackets.
2 x (35 + 55) = 2 x 35 + 2 x 55
= 70 + 110
= 180
Expanding brackets can make the multiplication simpler and quicker. Let us understand this with a few examples.
Example 1: 7 x 106
This expression can be rewritten as 7 x (100 + 6)
Here we are splitting 106 as (100+ 6) because it is easier to multiply a number with the multiples of 100.
Solving this by expanding brackets will give
= 7 x 100 + 7 x 6
= 700 + 42
= 742
