Question 498527
Depends. Sometimes you can use FOIL (acronym for first-outer-inner-last, order in which you can expand terms)


*[tex \LARGE (x^2 + 1)(y - 3) = x^2y - 3x^2 + y - 3]


Some higher-order polynomials you might just have to go term by term, satisfying the distributive property:


*[tex \LARGE (3x^2 -5)(4x^3 + 8x - 1) = 3x^2(4x^3 + 8x - 1) - 5(4x^3 + 8x - 1)]


If you are raising a binomial to a power, use the binomial theorem.


*[tex \LARGE (x+y)^n = (nC0)x^n + (nC1)x^{n-1}y + (nC2)x^{n-2}y^2 + ... + (nCn)y^n]


Here, nCk denotes the number of ways to choose k objects from a set of n objects, regardless of order.