Saturday, January 05, 2008

Eleven PLus Maths

Collecting Like Terms

In algebra, “like terms” are those that are of the same letter, like 2a and 5a. These can be gathered together, so instead of writing 2a + 5a, it can be simplified to 7a. HOWEVER, different terms, For example:

2 bananas + 3 apples + 4 apples added together is 2 bananas and 7 apples. As apples and bananas are different, these must be kept separate.

In the same way, x and y cannot be simplified and must remain as x + y.

Simplify 7t – 3 – 3t + 9.

7t – 3 – 3t + 9 = 7t – 3t + 9 – 3

= 4t + 6

Bright eleven year old children love the challenge of topics like `Collecting Like Terms'.

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