Combining Like Terms

Another way we sometimes
solve equations is by combining like terms. Combining like terms means putting
all the numbers with the same variables together. Think about doing something in
your life, like cleaning your room. You probably put the board games together, the
video games together, the clothes together, all the pillows and blankets together
. . . and so on. In a way, you are combining the like “terms” of your room.

In other words, an equation might come to you looking like this:

2x + 3y + 4x = 9

If you looked at the terms, or variables, of the equation, you would see that there
are two x terms, 2x and 4x, and they’re being added together (you know this because
the 4 has a + in front of it. If it were a – sign, we would know they would be subtracted.
Now, you can combine the two like terms, which would look like this:

2x + 4x = 6x

Now, you have 6x + 3y = 9. This is as much as you can solve this equation, because
you are not given values for either of the variables. Thus, your final answer is
6x + 3y = 9.

Here’s one for you to try:

And, here’s one last example—this one’s a tricky one!

9x + 2b + 8y – 3x +2y – 10b = 5

First, let’s put all the like terms together so that we don’t get confused. Remember,
when we move a variable, we move the + or – sign that is in front of it as well.

9x – 3x

2b – 10b

8y + 2y

Now, we solve for each of them, like this:

9x – 3x = 6x

2b – 10b = – 8b

8y + 2y = 10y

Now, we take the “answers” we just got, and put them back together, like this:

6x – 8b + 10y = 5

We know that the 8b is negative, because we see the big minus sign in front of it,
but how do we know that the other two are positive? Well, when combining like terms,
if there is no negative sign in front of the variable, we can assume that it’s positive;
therefore, you’ll stick a plus sign (+) in front of it.

Here are a couple examples for you to try. Combine like terms, and then pick the
answer that best matches yours.

Combining Like Terms with Exponents

Now that you have gone through basic combining like terms, you can move on to harder
equations. So far, the equations we’ve looked at have used either one or two variables,
without exponents.
As you move on into the study of
algebra, however, you will be asked to combine like terms with exponents,
which you need to do very carefully. We’ll walk you through this process so that
you don’t get confused.

If you saw this equation: 4 + x – 3 + 2x = 10, you would combine the 4 and –3, and
the x and 2x, to get 3x + 1 = 10. However, if the equation looked like this: 4 +
x² – 3 + 2x = 10, what would you do?

The right thing to do would be to combine only the like terms, which are the 4 and
– 3, so your equation would look like this: x² + 2x + 1 = 10. Your first
instinct might be to go ahead and add the x terms together, BUT this would be a
bad thing to do! You cannot combine the x² and 2x, because the first
term has an exponent (2) and the second one does not have an exponent; therefore,
you cannot add them together! When combining like terms, you must make sure than
all the variables, and exponents, are the same before you add them together.

Let’s practice with a few more of these, and then you can try it on your own.

Combine like terms from the following equation:

5x + 7x² – 6 + 10 – 4x + x³ = 12

It’s always good practice, when combining like terms and solving equations, to list
the terms from the variables with the highest exponents to the variables with the
lowest exponents, followed by a number without a variable (whole numbers, fractions,
and so on). We’re going to use this practice in re-writing all of our equations.

In order to combine like terms, we identify the term(s) with the highest exponents.
In this case, we have one term, x³, with an exponent of three. Since
this is the highest, we’ll write it first. Then, identify the term with the next
highest exponent, which is 7x². There are no more variables with an exponent
of 2, so we’ll write this one after our first term. Next, we look for x variables,
and find that we have 5x – 4x, so we can combine these terms (by subtracting) and
end up with simply + x. So far, our terms read: x³ + 7x² +
x. Now, we have to check for any whole numbers we can combine. We see that we have
– 6 + 10, which we can combine to give us a + 4. We write that after our other terms,
for a final equation of x³ + 7x² + x + 4 = 12.

Notice that this equation did not combine a lot—only 4 terms were combined (two
x terms and two whole numbers). This is perfectly fine, and will often happen in
algebra. Don’t worry, it doesn’t need to look super-simplified in order to be considered
correct. Sometimes you can only combine one or two things before you’re done with
an equation.

Let’s look at another one. Combine like terms in the following equation:

8x² + 9x³ – 3 + x² – 4x² + 3x + 5 –
9x – 10 = 3

This may look intimidating, but if you take it apart step by step it’s not bad.
Remember, start by looking for the variable with the highest exponent, and then
work your way down from there. We look for the highest exponent, which in this problem
is 3, and see that there is only one term with an exponent of 3. Therefore, we write
9x³ as our first term in the combined equation. Then we look at the next
highest exponent, 2, and see that there are three terms with an exponent of two;
they are: 8x², x², and – 4x². The first two terms
are positive, so they get added together resulting in 9x², and the last
one is negative, so we subtract the term, leaving us with 5x². Our next
term is simply the x term, which we have two of; they are: 3x and – 9x. We combine
these through subtraction, and get –6x. Lastly, we look at our whole numbers; there
are 2 of them, and they are: 5 and –10, which we subtract to get –5. Now, we list
all of these terms together to get 9x³ + 5x² – 6x – 8 = 3.

Combining Like Terms with Exponents Quiz

Now, we’re going to give you one more problem. Be careful, it’s a tricky one. Hint:
remember that you can only combine things that have variables that look exactly
the same; in other words, if you had a²b + ab², you cannot
add those together!