Distributive property over subtraction

rewrite the expression 5 times 9 minus 4 that's in parentheses using the distributive law of multiplication over subtraction then simplify so if we let me just rewrite it so this is going to be 5 times 9 minus 4 9 9 minus 4 9 minus 4 just like that now if we want to use the distributive property but you don't have to you could just evaluate 9 minus 4 and then multiply that times 5 but if you want to use the distributive property you distribute the 5 you multiply the 5 times the 9 and the 4 so you end up with 5 times 9 5 times 9 minus minus 5 times 4 minus 5 times 4 notice we distributed the 5 we multiplied it times both the 9 and the 4 and in the first distributive property video we gave you an idea of why you have to distribute the 5 why it makes sense why you don't just multiply it by the 9 we're going to verify that it gives us the same answer as if we just evaluated the 9 minus 4 first but anyway what are these things so 5 times 9 that is 45 so you have 45 minus what's 5 times 4 well that's 20 45 minus 20 and that is equal to well that's equal to 25 so this is using the distributive property right here if we didn't want to use the distributive property if we just wanted to evaluate within the parentheses first we would have gotten let's go in this direction 5 times what's 9 minus 4 9 minus 4 9 minus 4 is 5 let me do that in a different color 5 times 9 minus 4 so it's 5 times 5 5 times 5 is just 25 so we get the same answer either way this is using the distributive law of multiplication over subtraction usually just referred to as the distributive property this is evaluating the inside of the parentheses first and then multiplying by 5