What happens when you square a binomial?

1 Answer
Aug 16, 2015

I am not sure about what you need, but have a look:

Explanation:

If you have a binomial such as (a+b) and you square it you get:
(a+b)2
but this is the same as:
(a+b)(a+b)

exactly as 42=4×4.

The result of (a+b)(a+b) is interesting because you need to multiply each term of the first bracket by each term of the second and add the results!
(a+b)(a+b)=aa+ab+ba+bb=a2+2ab+b2

Try by yourself with a difficult one: (ab)2 remembering to consider the signs of each term!