Question

How many terms are in the expression shown below?
x^2 - 10xy + 3y + y^2 - 1

aren't there 4?

Answer 1

Terms are separated by the addition or subtraction signs, so even though the 1 on the end is a constant, it's still counted as a term. You can think of it as -1x^0 if it helps.

Answer 2

so are there 4..?

Answer 3

There are 5 actually, you probably just miscounted.