To simplify a radical, factor out the perfect squares:

\( \sqrt{20} \)
\( \sqrt{4 \times 5} \)
\( \sqrt{2^2 \times 5} \)
2\( \sqrt{5} \)

To add or subtract terms with exponents, both the base and the exponent must be the same. In this case they are so add the coefficients and retain the base and exponent:

-2x³ + 7x³
(-2 + 7)x³
5x³

To fill a 20 gallon tank exactly halfway you'll need 10 gallons of fuel. Each fuel can holds 2\(\frac{1}{2}\) gallons so:

cans = \( \frac{10 \text{ gallons}}{2\frac{1}{2} \text{ gallons}} \) = 4

The first few multiples of 5 are [5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50] and the first few multiples of 7 are [7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63, 70]. The first few multiples they share are [35, 70] making 35 the smallest multiple 5 and 7 have in common.

The distributive property for multiplication helps in solving expressions like a(b + c). It specifies that the result of multiplying one number by the sum or difference of two numbers can be obtained by multiplying each number individually and then totaling the results: a(b + c) = ab + ac. For example, 4(10-5) = (4 x 10) - (4 x 5) = 40 - 20 = 20.