Question

Proving (a + b)^2 = a^2 +2ab + b^2

do this as a two column proof

Hint: (a + b)2 = (a + b)(a + b) may be a good way to get started. You can then do more algebra steps to the (a + b)(a + b) expression to eventually re-write it as a2 + 2ab + b2 .

Answer 1

yes this is solved by the distributive property of multiplication.

`{(a + b)}^(2) = (a + b)(a + b)`

`= {a}^(2) + ab + {b}^(2) + ab`

`{a}^(2) + 2ab + {b}^(2)`

therefore

`{(a + b)}^(2) = {a}^(2) + {b}^(2) + 2ab`