Question

Question: when you subtract like terms how do you know what number to subtract from the other?

for example: 3x+4+10x-9=180, do I do 3x-10x or 10x-3x???​

Answer 1

Answer: You would add them together, not subtract.

Step-by-step explanation: When you’re combining like terms, you always “add“ them together. For that example, you would add 3x and 10x together along with 4 and -9 together. That would look like (3x + 10x) + [4 + (-9)], which simplifies to 13x - 5 = 180.