## chungerforever Group Title would the answer of (a − b)(a − b) be a^2 - ab^2 - b^2 2 years ago 2 years ago

1. TransendentialPI Group Title

FOIL First: a*a = a^2 Outside = -ab Inside = -ab Last = -b(-b) = +b^2 What do we do with the -ab and the -ab?

2. TransendentialPI Group Title

Tkink -x + -x = -2x

3. chungerforever Group Title

I know to combine itt

4. satellite73 Group Title

@chungerforever remember when we had $$5x+5x=10x$$? don't change the exponents here either

5. satellite73 Group Title

$$-ab-ab=?$$

6. chungerforever Group Title

oh minus! so just ab?

7. satellite73 Group Title

$$-10-10=?$$

8. chungerforever Group Title

oh I understand, so the answer is just a^2 - b^2?

9. satellite73 Group Title

hold the phone, careful arithmetic $$-10-10=?$$

10. satellite73 Group Title

hint, it is not 0

11. chungerforever Group Title

I'm sorry I have no idea, I'm not good at algebra ):

12. chungerforever Group Title

-10?

13. satellite73 Group Title

don't fret, we will work it out, but i was asking an arithmetic question $$-10-10=-20$$

14. satellite73 Group Title

$$-100-100=?$$

15. chungerforever Group Title

-200?

16. satellite73 Group Title

yes that is it !

17. satellite73 Group Title

$$-7-7=?$$

18. chungerforever Group Title

-14

19. satellite73 Group Title

ok good now we can move on to variables

20. satellite73 Group Title

$-10-10=-20$ $-100-100=-200$ $-7-7=-14$ $-12-12=-24$ and so on how about $-x-x$? well this must be the same as the others, namely $-x-x=-2x$

21. chungerforever Group Title

so -2ab?

22. satellite73 Group Title

notice that the exponent does not change spend $20, spend another$20 you have spent $$2\times 20=40$$ yes you have it !

23. satellite73 Group Title

so "final answer" for $$(a-b)(a-b)$$ is ??

24. chungerforever Group Title

a^2 - 2ab - b^2?

25. satellite73 Group Title

yes that is it!

26. chungerforever Group Title

thank you so much! and sorry I was taking a while to reply. But thanks again I appreciate it (:

27. satellite73 Group Title

yw good work, hope you are understanding a bit more about combining like terms