could someone help me with math?

Question

Combine by adding or subtracting as indicated:

10s⁵⁺9s⁵

Answer 1

since these terms have the same exponent you can just add them together!

10s⁵ + 9s⁵ = 19s⁵

Answer 2

Using the distributive law

10 s^5 + 9 s^5

(10 + 9) s^5

19 s^5

 

note that the exponents refer to the s and not to the coefficients.

 

There is nothing particularly magical about s^5, it is just another mathematical object, subject to the same rules (distributive law) and operations (multiplication and addition) of other mathematical objects.