SIMPLIFICATION OF ALGEBRAIC EXPRESSIONS

CONTENT

1. Basic Arithmetic Operations Applied to Algebraic Expressions of Similar Terms
2. Addition and Subtraction of Similar Terms
3. Multiplication and Division of Similar Terms
4. Collection and Simplification of Like and Unlike Terms in Algebraic Expressions
5. The Use of Brackets

Basic Arithmetic Operations Applied to Algebraic Expressions of Similar Terms

A combination of constants and variables connected by the signs of fundamental operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division is called an algebraic expression. That is, numbers or objects are represented with letters. For example, \(5b + 3c + 7d\) can be a representation of \(5\) babies, \(3\) cats and \(7\) dogs. The quantities \(5b, 3c\) and \(7d\) are referred to as the terms of the expression. The above expression contains \(3\) terms.

In the above expression, \(5, 3\) and \(7\) are called the co-efficients of \(b, c\) and \(d\) respectively.

Addition and Subtraction of Similar Terms

Examples:

Simplify the following expressions:

(i) \(4a + 5a + a\)

(ii) \(9n -5n -3n\)

(iii) \(11q + 5q -2q + q\)

(iv) \(20p -9p -p + 2p\)

Solutions:

(i) \(4a + 5a + a\)

Since the letters are alike, we add the coefficients together.