How do you combine like terms in #18n - 11n - 17#?

1 Answer
Apr 9, 2018

Like terms are like counting how many similar things you have.

Explanation:

For example, if you have #18# apples and #17# oranges and I take away #11# apples you only have #7# apples left and still #17# oranges.

So if you have a #18n# and a #-17# and #11n# are taken away you have #7n# left and still a #-17#.

This means that #18n - 11n -17 = 7n - 17#.