Question

What happens if in an addition and subtraction of monomials, for example, a -7 appears first and then a +10 with the same exponent and literal, for example X as a literal and a 2 as an exponent. Does it add or subtract?

Answer 1

In this case, when you have a subtraction of -7a^2 and then an addition of +10a^2, you can simplify the expression by adding the coefficients of the two terms that have the same literal and exponent.

So, you have:

-7a^2 + 10a^2

To add or subtract these terms, we need to have the same literal and exponent, which is the case here. The coefficients of the terms are -7 and 10, so we can add them to get:

-7a^2 + 10a^2 = 3a^2

Therefore, the simplified expression is 3a^2.

In summary, when you have terms with the same literal and exponent, you can add or subtract their coefficients to simplify the expression.