<p>OK so hi, I'm studying for the SAT and I do not understand algebra. You guys are clever. Can anyone explain factoring and distribution to me?</p>
<p>The blue book says "you may see questions that ask you to evaluate or compare expressions that require factoring."</p>
<p>What does that mean!? <em>hits head against wall</em></p>
<p>when you factor something, you are splitting it into two parts which, when multiplied together, are the same as what you had in the first place. For example, you can factor the number 10 into 2*5. In algebra, you are usually asked to do this with expressions involving some unknown (like x). It’s the same concept. You can factor</p>
<p>x^2 - 4</p>
<p>into: (x-2)(x+2).</p>
<p>They are different ways of writing the same thing.</p>
<p>Distribution is a way to multiply something that looks like this:</p>
<p>([something]+[something]) * ([something]+[something])</p>
<p>To understand what’s going on, try it with whole numbers first. When you multiply, say, 5 and 5, it’s like you are adding 5 to itself 5 times. Now say you want to multiply (2+3) and 5. Then you can look at it as either (2+3)<em>5 = (5)</em>5</p>
<p>or you can distribute and get:</p>
<p>2<em>5 + 3</em>5</p>
<p>which means you are first adding 5 to itself two times, then adding 5 another three times, and so you have added 5 to itself 5 times.</p>
<p>Now the same sort of principle works with unknowns. When you have (x+a)<em>b, you can rewrite it as x</em>b + a*b, as in the end it is like you are adding b to itself (x+a) times. (Multipliciation is not actually defined by adding numbers to themselves, but it helps you get the idea).</p>
<p>Now try to reason the same sort of thing for distributing wiht an expression like (a+b)*(c+d)</p>
<p>Yikes! You badly need a algebra class! Not, trying to be rude, but you will probably do poorly if you don’t know basic math concepts. So take an algebra class.</p>