ALEKS Practice Exam 2026 – The Complete All-in-One Guide to Mastering Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces!

The expression \((a+b)²\) can be expanded using the distributive property, also known as the FOIL method (First, Outer, Inner, Last). When you calculate \((a+b)(a+b)\), you multiply each term in the first parentheses by each term in the second parentheses.

1. The First terms are \(a \cdot a = a²\).

2. The Outer terms are \(a \cdot b = ab\).

3. The Inner terms are \(b \cdot a = ab\), which is the same as the Outer term.

4. The Last terms are \(b \cdot b = b²\).

Adding all these results together gives:

\[

a² + ab + ab + b² = a² + 2ab + b².

\]

This confirms that the expression equivalent to \((a+b)²\) is \(a² + 2ab + b²\).

The other options do not represent the expansion of \((a+b)²\). The expression \(a²-b²\) represents the difference of squares and is not related to the expansion of a binomial square. The expression \((y₂-y₁