Expand and simplify (x+12)(x-3)

In order to solve this question, I am going to use the FOIL (first, outer, inner, last) method of expanding brackets. First we need to multiply the two first elements in each bracket together - in this case xx = x^2. Next we need to multiply the two outer elements together, i.e. x-3 = -3x, making sure not to forget the minus sign! Now we want to multiply the two inner values together, so 12x = 12x. Finally we want to multiply together the last two elements in each bracket, 12-3 = -36, again not forgetting the minus sign! Now we have all the parts, we just need to add them together: x^2 -3x + 12x - 36 We can see we have some 'like terms': terms that look the same because they both have an 'x' in them. We can combine these into one term by adding the coefficients: -3+12, to give us +9. Overall, we get to the solution of x^2 + 9x - 36