Subtraction of Like Terms

Addition of Like Terms

Subtraction of Like Terms

Multiplication of Like Terms

Before you study this concept, you are advice of read: What are Like terms ? While subtracting one like term from another like terms, we only do the subtraction of numeric parts or constant and keep the variable part as such. To understand why only constant parts are subtracted in subtraction of like terms, lets study the following example 1: Example 1 : Subtract 3a from 5a Solution = This proceeds as: 5a - 3a We know that a term is a product of its constants and variable, so we get: = (5 X a) - (3 X a) Apply Distributive Property and we get: = (5 - 3) X a Solve brackets and we get: = 2 X a Or we can write it as: = 2a Hence, you can observe that during subtraction of given like terms i.e. 5a & 3a, constant 3 is subtracted from constant 5 i.e. 5 - 3 (variable i.e. a is kept as such) and this gives result equals to 2a. Example 2: Subtract 20xy from 10xy Solution: This proceeds as: 10xy - 20xy Subtract constants and keep variable as such & we get: = (10 - 20)xy Solve brackets and we get: = (-10xy) Hence, 10xy - 20xy = (-10xy) Example 3: Solve (3x2 - 2x2) Solution: This proceeds as: (3x2 - 2x2) Subtract constants and keep variable as such & we get: = (3 - 2)x2 Solve brackets and we get: = 1x2 Or we can also write it as: = x2 Hence, 3x2 - 2x2 = x2