Expanding brackets means multiplying everything inside the bracket by the letter or number outside the bracket. For example, in the expression \(3(m + 7)\) both \(m\) and 7 must be multiplied by 3: ...

In algebra, letters are used when numbers are not known. Algebraic terms, such as \(2s\) or \(8y\), leave the multiplication signs out. So rather than \(2 \times s\), write \(2s\), and rather than \(8 ...