Question

Bobby Joe made a mistake on his assignment on Combining Like Terms. Can you help Bobby Joe? For full points on this question:

Tell me what he did RIGHT!

Tell me the mistake that Bobby Joe made

Tell me the correct way to combine like terms in this expression

6x + 5x + 2y
11x + 2y
13xy

Answer 1

Bobby Joe has done combination properly till
`11x + 2y` because,
`6x + 5x` are like terms and has common variable
`‘x’` but, he messed up when he started combining
`11x + 2y`because, they are not at all like terms and doesn't have common variable. So, to recover it he should stop combining till
`11x + 2y`.

Answer 2

Bobby added 6x and 5x which was correct because they're like terms

Bobby then combined 11x and 2y which was incorrect, they're not like terms because they have different variables

to correct his mistake he has to stop simplifying the equation at 11x + 2y because that is as far as you can simplify it