Collecting Like Terms 

Hello Everyone,

Hope You are having a great day.

Today I will be showing you how to collect like terms .

What are 'like terms'?

Terms that use only variables (usually a single letter) are known as 'like terms'. 

What is meant by 'collecting like terms'?

Collecting like terms is when you add or subtract the terms that have the same ending for example: 3x and 5x , these could be put together to make 8x.  However, 5a and 5b could not be put together,as they are not the same.

A few examples

C+D+C+D+D = 2C+3D 

• The two C terms were collected together to give 2C
•  The three D terms were collected together to give 3D
• C+C and D+D+D

3x + 20 + 9x + 15 = 12x + 35

• The two x terms were collected together to give 12x
• The numbers were collected together to make up 35
• 3x + 9x and 20 + 15 

4ab + 3a + 3b + 10a + 20 = 4ab + 13a + 3b + 20

• You can't collect a term that only has one of such variable and cannot be amalgamated with any other term, even if it looks similar.
• The only two terms that can be collected together are 10a and 3a which makes 13a

Different Terms

4x + 5y + 10 y - 3x +24  = 15y + x + 24

• The two x terms were collected to make x
• The two y terms were collected to make 15y
• 4x - 3x and 5y + 10y
• Note that 1x is simply written as x

Now you try................

Questions 

1.    2x + 3y + 10y - 4x 

2.   5ab + 6y - 2ab + 2y - 24

3.   7cd + 5c - 8cd + 2c + 4dc

See answers below to check if you have them right.  

1. 13y -2x

2. 3ab + 8y - 24 

3. 7c - cd + 4dc

I hope that you have found this useful and have learnt something new today.

Thank you for reading.

Matthew