Expert: Paul Klarreich - 12/6/2009

Question
How can I prove or come up with a lesson plan on the distributive property. I need to clearly show that the distributive property does not apply to  1. exponentiation or raising to a power 2. the logarithmic functions 3. trigonometric functions.    Example sin(x + y) as sinx + siny I need to explain all of these and need some examples.  

Answer
Questioner: Gerald
Country: United States
Category: Advanced Math
Private: No
Subject: distributative property
Question: How can I prove or come up with a lesson plan on the distributive property. I need to clearly show that the distributive property does not apply to  1. exponentiation or raising to a power

>> Well, yes it does:

(ab)^n = a^n b^n

2. the logarithmic functions 3. trigonometric functions.    Example sin(x + y) as sinx + siny I need to explain all of these and need some examples.
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As to the rest, do you need a lesson for your 7th grade prealgebra, or for your undergraduate abstract algebra class based on the Peano axioms and the well-ordering property?

There is plenty of stuff around and I can't really give you a lesson plan -- all mine are in pen-and-paper form and from many years ago.