When performing the distributive property, what operation is used to reverse it?

The correct operation used to reverse the distributive property is multiplication. When you apply the distributive property, you take a single term outside of parentheses and multiply it by each term within the parentheses. For example, if you have ( a(b + c) ), you apply the distributive property by multiplying ( a ) by both ( b ) and ( c ) to get ( ab + ac ).

To reverse this process, you would need to factor the expression back into its original form. Factoring involves recognizing a common factor (in this case, ( a )) and expressing the original expression as a multiple of this factor and the sum of the terms inside the parentheses. Thus, multiplication is necessary to condense the expression back into a single term outside of the parentheses.

In this context, addition is also used when combining the terms within the parentheses, and division and subtraction are not applicable as operations for reversing multiplication in the context of the distributive property. The essence of the distributive property is closely tied to how multiplication operates, making it clear that reversing it also requires the use of multiplication.