The distributive property is a key idea in algebra. It helps us simplify expressions and equations. We often see it used in everyday situations too. Here are a few examples to show how it works.

1. Budgeting Household Expenses

When you manage your home budget, the distributive property can help figure out total spending.

For example, if a family buys groceries every week and spends $50 on fruits and$30 on vegetables, their weekly grocery total can be calculated like this:

Total = 4(50 + 30)

This means they are looking at their spending over 4 weeks. We can use the distributive property to make it simpler:

Total = 4 × 50 + 4 × 30 Total = 200 + 120 Total = 320

So, after 4 weeks, they spend a total of $320 on groceries.

2. Scaling Recipes

Another place you see this is when cooking.

Let’s say you have a cake recipe for 2 people that needs 3 cups of flour and 4 cups of sugar. If you want to make enough for 6 people, you'll need to change the amounts:

Ingredients for 6 servings = 3 × 3 + 4 × 3

Now, using the distributive property, we can work it out:

Ingredients = 3(2) + 4(2) Ingredients = 6 + 8 Ingredients = 14

That means to serve 6 people, you’ll need 14 cups of ingredients.

3. Construction and Area Calculation

In building projects, we often calculate the area of rectangles.

Imagine a rectangular garden that has a length of (l) and a width of (w). If we want to find the area after making the length 2 meters longer and the width 3 meters wider, we can write it like this:

Area = (l + 2)(w + 3)

Now, let’s use the distributive property to simplify it:

Area = lw + 3l + 2w + 6

This helps us see how much larger the area of the garden becomes with the new measurements.

Conclusion

These examples show how the distributive property is used in budgeting, cooking, and construction. It helps us simplify math problems, which makes it easier to make smart decisions in our daily lives.