Question

How do you simplify `(17x^5 + 19x^2 + 15) - (9x^7 - 11x - 17)`?

Answer 1

You can get rid of the brackets and try adding similar terms (remember that the second bracket has a minus sign in front of it so all its terms have to change signs when eliminating the brackets):

`17x^5+19x^2+15-9x^7+11x+17=`

`=17x^5+19x^2-9x^7+11x+32=` ordering the exponents:

`=-9x^7+17x^5+19x^2+11x+32`