Did you know that every time you go to the grocery store and buy produce (i.e., fruits and vegetables) you are using an incredibly important math skill?
Jenn, Founder Calcworkshop®, 15+ Years Experience (Licensed & Certified Teacher)
It’s true, you are a master at Combining Like Terms!
Don’t believe me?
Ok, let’s say you and your friend went to the store to get apples and oranges to make a yummy fruit salad. You pick out 4 apples and 3 oranges, and your friend selects 2 apples and 5 oranges.
So together you have a total of 6 apples and 8 oranges for your fruit salad, because you put the apples together (4 apples + 2 apples) and the oranges together (3 oranges + 5 oranges).
Guess what, adding the apples and oranges together is Combing Like Terms!
See, I told you, you already know how to do this!
But in math, instead of having to write the words apples or oranges, we simplify things and use variables instead. For example, instead of saying: 4 apples + 2 apples = 8 apples, would would simply say 4x + 2x = 6x
Easy, right?
Now, a Term is a nothing more than a number, or a variable, or a product of numbers and variables, and Like Terms have the same variable with the same exponents or powers.
Combine terms with same variables and exponents
And the process of how to Combine Like Terms is really quite simple.
All we have to do is add or subtract those terms that are alike by adding or subtracting their numerical coefficients.
What’s a coefficient again?
A Coefficient is the number in front of a variable and indicates how many of that item we have.
Together we will learn to spot Like Terms and Unlike Terms, as Math is Fun calls them by noticing variables and exponents within an expression.
Then we will practice Combining Terms by adding or subtracting their coefficients by working through countless examples.
Lastly, we will revisit the Distributive Property and use it to simplify expressions in order to create Equivalent Algebraic Expressions by Combining Like Terms.
Combining Like Terms – Video
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