Question

What is the standard form of a polynomial `(7x^2 - 2x + 8) - (4x^2 + 9x - 1)`?

Answer 1

`3x^2-11x+9`

Explanation:

The first step is to distribute the brackets.

`rArr7x^2-2x+8-4x^2-9x+1`

now, collect `color(blue)"like terms"`

`color(blue)(7x^2-4x^2)color(red)(-2x-9x)color(magenta)(+8+1)`

`=3x^2-11x+9" in standard form"`

Standard form means start with the term with the highest power of the variable, in this case `x^2`, followed by the next highest power and so on until the last term, the constant.