Question

What is $\left( p-3 \right)+\left( p-7 \right)$ ?

Answer 1

Hint: To find the value of $\left( p-3 \right)+\left( p-7 \right)$ , we have to first rewrite the equation by removing the brackets. Then, we have to combine the like terms and perform the operations, like addition. Like terms are the terms whose exponents and the corresponding variables are the same.

Complete step-by-step answer:
We have to find the value of $\left( p-3 \right)+\left( p-7 \right)$ . Let us write this equation by removing the bracket.
$= p-3+p-7$
We have to collect the like terms. Like terms are the terms whose exponents and the corresponding variables are the same. Hence, we can write the above equation as
$= p+p-3-7$
Let us add the like variables. Thus we can write the above equation as
$= 2p-3-7$
Now, let us sum the constants. Then, the above equation becomes
$= 2p-10$
Hence, the value of $\left( p-3 \right)+\left( p-7 \right)$ is $2p-10$ .

Note: Students must know how to solve algebraic expressions. They must know what are like terms and unlike terms. We have seen what lke terms are. Only like terms can be added and subtracted. For example, in this question, we can see that the exponent of both the p is 1. This is why we were able to add $p+p$ . Students must note that all the constants are also like terms. Unlike terms are the terms whose exponents are different. For example, ${{x}^{2}}+{{x}^{3}},{{x}^{4}}+y$ , etc. Unlike terms cannot be added or subtracted. In the final answer $2p-10$ , students should not take the common factor 2 outside. This will lead to the final answer in non-simplified form.