Combining Like Terms

Combining Like Terms
Introduction

Combining like terms is the process of adding or subtracting terms that share the same variable and exponent to produce a simpler expression. This skill is fundamental to simplifying algebraic expr...

Lena is working on her math homework. One of the problems asks her to simplify the expression 4x + 3(2x − 5).

To do this, she first checks the terms inside the parentheses. Since they cannot be combined, she uses the distributive property to remove the parentheses by multiplying the number outside by each term inside.

She multiplie...