Cliques in MATH? Variables don't always get along.

Unlike Terms don't play well together

After learning distributive multiplication new terms are created that aren't alike. Unfortunately they do not mix, so it is important to keep the like terms together. What makes a like term and how do I collect them to "Simplify" my equations students ask.

LIKE TERM - same variable to identical exponent, only the coefficient and sign can be different. This is best explained with a few examples below.

"SIMPLIFY seems to be a catch all in math the isn't always SIMPLE!" OK, I get it so let me show you a method to aid in collecting the like terms in the short video below.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/d07c62_11c15db448224884b670f95f3a5963dd/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Grouping Like Terms with SHAPES.