Exercise 40 Page 490

Remember that only like terms can be combined.

- 6w^4+2w^3-3w^2+w

Practice makes perfect

The first step in simplifying this expression is to identify which, if any, terms can be combined. Remember that only like terms — constant terms or terms with the same variable and the same exponent — can be combined. ( -6w^4 + w^2)-( -2w^3 + 4w^2- w) In this case the only variable is w, but the variable terms have various exponents. The only terms with the same exponent are w^2 and 4w^2, and thus these are the only ones that can be combined. To simplify the expression we will use the Commutative Property of Addition and then combine like terms.

(-6w^4+w^2)-(- 2w^3+4w^2-w)

RemovePar

Remove parentheses

-6w^4+w^2-(- 2w^3+4w^2-w)

Distr

Distribute -1

-6w^4+w^2+2w^3-4w^2+w

CommutativePropAdd

Commutative Property of Addition

-6w^4+2w^3+w^2-4w^2+w

SubTerm

Subtract term