Question

17a, -4a not like terms?

Answer 1

yes they are like terms....what is the context of the problem?

Answer 2

nothing it just says if they write if they are or are not like terms if they are not why?

Answer 3

like terms mean that they have the same variable and that variable has the same exponent. Is that true in this case?

Answer 4

It does not matter if the coefficients(numbers in front) are the same...

Answer 5

well they have a negativand positive so no?

Answer 6

exponents are the numbers above so in the following terms.\[2x ^{4} and -2x ^{4} \] the exponents are the 4s. These terms would be like terms since my exponents are the same number and my variable for both is 'x'. It doesn't matter if the numbers in front are both positive or not, the only thing that matters are the variables.