How do you simplify $6a + 2a$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2015-11-02T17:09:58

$8a$

A multiplication is just a short way to write a sum, in the sense that

$6a=underbrace(a+a+a+a+a+a)_{6}$ , and

$2a=underbrace(a+a)_{2}$ .

Now, let's add the two terms:

$6a+2a = underbrace(underbrace(a+a+a+a+a+a)_6+underbrace(a+a)_2)_8$

which means that the total is eight times $a$ .

How do you simplify 6a + 2a6a + 2a?