Exercise 40 Page 490

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.