Exercise 4 Page 539

The first step in simplifying this expression is to identify which, if any, terms can be combined. Remember, only like terms — constant terms or terms with the same variable and the same exponent — can be combined. ( 8x^2 + 5x + 7) - ( 5x^2 + 8x - 6) In this case, we have two x^2-terms, two x-terms, and two constants. All of those can be combined, so to simplify the expression we will rearrange it according to the Commutative Property of Addition and then combine like terms. Notice that the polynomial is already written in standard form since the terms are arranged by degree, in descending order.