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2 years ago in Algebra , Mathematics By Suresh

What is the formula for expanding (a + b)(a + b)?

While this is a basic identity, I'm revisiting foundational algebra to ensure robustness in a symbolic computation algorithm I'm developing. A clear, principled derivation helps in debugging and generalizing the code for higher-degree polynomial manipulations.

 

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By Nitin Answered 1 year ago

I've taught this concept countless times. The expansion is (a + b)² = a² + 2ab + b². I always emphasize understanding it visually as the area of a square of side (a+b), divided into a square of area a², a square of b², and two rectangles of area ab each. I would recommend grounding in this geometric interpretation; it builds intuition for later, more abstract factorization and completion-of-square techniques, which are vital in calculus and optimization.

 

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