Lesson Extra Practice: Writing Equivalent Expressions Smulify the expression 1. \( 6(2 a+3) \)

To simplify the expression \( 6(2a + 3) \), you need to distribute the 6 to both terms inside the parentheses. So, multiplying 6 by 2a gives you \( 12a \), and multiplying 6 by 3 gives you \( 18 \). Thus, the simplified expression is \( 12a + 18 \). You can also factor this expression back to its original form by noticing that both terms, \( 12a \) and \( 18 \), share a common factor of 6. So you could rewrite it as \( 6(2a + 3) \) or even as \( 6(2a + 3) \), highlighting how equivalent expressions can be formed through factoring and distributing!