FOIL

From AoPSWiki

FOIL, standing for first, outside, inside, last, is a mnemonic device for remembering the distributive property when two binomials are multiplied.

Here is an example.

First we multiply the first terms

Then, the outside terms

Next, the inside terms .

Finally, we multiply the last terms

Thus, our answer is , which, when simplified, gives us a final answer of .

See also

• Distributive property
• Simon's Favorite Factoring Trick