simplify 6x-2y-3x+2y

Question

6x-2y-3x+2y

how to simplify

Answer 1

Let's first rearrange terms, which will do nothing to your equation.

6x - 2y - 3x + 2y = 6x - 3x - 2y + 2y

The reason I did this is because I want to combine like terms. There are two types of terms: those with an "x" and those with a "y". The two terms with x are next to each other and the two terms with y are also next to each other. Now, I can factor out x and y.

6x - 3x - 2y + 2y = (6 - 3)x + (-2 + 2)y

The reason I did this is because I used factoring to reduce this to an arithmetic problem. The y terms cancel and we have 6x - 2y - 3x + 2y = 3x.