Take a look at this expression: 28 + 35.
What do 28 and 35 have in common? Seven is a factor of both of them.
So this means that 28 + 35 = (7 x 4) + (7 x 5).
Now, we bring in the distributive property.
We can take the 7 out of both terms and be left with the 4 and 5.
The answer to 28 + 35 and the answer to 7(4 + 5) is 63. The answer is the same to both. However, you might find that getting to the answer in the second form is easier. So we can use the distributive property to rewrite expressions with common factors to help simplify the work.
