How to add and subtract like terms to simplify polynomials

Adding and subtracting like terms is also known as combining like terms. Like terms are variables that have the same letter and same exponent. But like terms can have different coefficients. In other words, think about 3x^4+2x^4 as something like “3 apples + 2 apples,” where “apples” represents the x^4 term. We can simplify polynomials by looking for like terms and combining them together.

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How to add or subtract polynomials

When adding and subtracting polynomials, you’re really just looking for like terms to combine. The largest exponent in a polynomial is called the degree of the polynomial. The term with the largest exponent is called the leading term, because the terms of a polynomial are usually written in descending order of their exponents.

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