+390 What are like terms? How do you combine them? Can you give me an example for I know how to do it?
+118687 like terms are terms that you are allowed to add or subtract together.
They must have the same letter and those letters must be raised to the same powers.
It is easiest to think of the letters as things (just for add and subtract - doesn't work the same for mult or divide)
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ex
3C+8B-C+6d
you could think of this as
=3cats + 8bananas - a cat +6dogs
=3cats + 8bananas - 1cat +6dogs (a cat is the same as 1 cat)
now the cats are like terms - I can put those together (3cats)+(-1cat) = 2cats
note that the minus sign always belongs to the term following it.
so now we have
=2cats + 8bananas +6dogs
The other things are all different - they are unlike terms - so the simplification is finished.
=2C + 8B + 6D
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5mt + 8t - m +10tm + 2t^2m
The only terms here with exactly the same letters raised to exactly the same powers is 5mt and 10tm.
It doesn't matterthat the letters are in a different order because
10tm=10*t*m=10*m*t=10mt
5mt+10tm=15mt (or 15tm)
so the answer is
15mt + 8t - m + 2t^2m
It cannot be simplified further because there are no more like terms. 
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+118687 like terms are terms that you are allowed to add or subtract together.
They must have the same letter and those letters must be raised to the same powers.
It is easiest to think of the letters as things (just for add and subtract - doesn't work the same for mult or divide)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
ex
3C+8B-C+6d
you could think of this as
=3cats + 8bananas - a cat +6dogs
=3cats + 8bananas - 1cat +6dogs (a cat is the same as 1 cat)
now the cats are like terms - I can put those together (3cats)+(-1cat) = 2cats
note that the minus sign always belongs to the term following it.
so now we have
=2cats + 8bananas +6dogs
The other things are all different - they are unlike terms - so the simplification is finished.
=2C + 8B + 6D
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5mt + 8t - m +10tm + 2t^2m
The only terms here with exactly the same letters raised to exactly the same powers is 5mt and 10tm.
It doesn't matterthat the letters are in a different order because
10tm=10*t*m=10*m*t=10mt
5mt+10tm=15mt (or 15tm)
so the answer is
15mt + 8t - m + 2t^2m
It cannot be simplified further because there are no more like terms.
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