This example calculates the result of by interpreting the expression as the area of a square made up of rectangles. This process is equivalent to using the distributive property of multiplication.
Start with the expression.
This can be represented geometrically as the area of the square with a side length of .
Expand the exponent expression.
Observe that the area of the square is equal to the sum of the four sub-rectangles.
Compute the area of each of the rectangles by multiplying their width by height together.
Sum the areas together to find the area of the square.
Finally, the result can be simplified by grouping similar expressions.