Exercise 5 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. (5x^4 + 7x + 2) - ( 3x^2 - 2x + 9)In this case, we have one x^4-term, one x^2-term, two x-terms, and two constants. Since x-terms and constants can be combined, to simplify the expression we will rearrange it according to the Commutative Property of Addition and then combine like terms.

In order to write the polynomial in standard form, we need to arrange the terms by degree in descending order. 5x^4+9x-7-3x^2 ⇕ 5x^4-3x^2+9x-7