According to the distributive property, how can you simplify the expression a(b + c)?

The distributive property states that when you have an expression of the form a(b + c), you can distribute the a to each term inside the parentheses. This means that you multiply a by each of the terms b and c separately.

When applying this property to the expression a(b + c), you first multiply a by b, which gives you ab. Then, you multiply a by c, resulting in ac. When you combine these two results together, the simplified expression becomes ab + ac.

This systematic approach to distributing allows for the proper simplification of the expression and aligns with the fundamental principles of algebra. Thus, the correct choice that reflects this application of the distributive property is ab + ac.