It's these little things that always get me. I'm working on writing a program for doing expressions... but... how do I handle combining like terms and distributing? As in I'm asking if I have the right order. :3
For example, with the expression:
(5x(12x -2x + 4) + 3 + 3x - (6x -2))/2
Nice and complicated, I guess. But at what stage would I combine like terms, and also, when would you distribute? Before or after combining...
Would I just follow PEMDAS in the combining of terms? Like distribute first because it's multiplication? And do this before trying to simplify?
So:
(5x(12x -2x + 4) + 3 + 3x - (6x -2))/2
(50x+ 7 + 3x -6x+2))/2 <<<--- Distribute, combine, distribute...
(47x+ 9)/2 <<<---Combine some more...
then distribute(if that's the right word for division)
23.5x + 4.5
Would that be the right answer? I hope I wasn't too confusing.
(BTW, this isn't homework, but I assume anyone in this forum would probably be the most knowledgeable on this. )
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