Question

How do you simplify `11 (x-y) + 5 (x-y) - 8 (x-y)`?

Answer 1

`=8(x-y)`

Explanation:

As you can see, all of those terms have a common factor of `(x-y)`. We can factor it out and simplify it:
`11(x-y)+5(x-y)-8(x-y)=(x-y)(11+5-8)`
`=(x-y)(8)`
`=8(x-y) or 8x-8y`