Question

Rileys parents got a cell phone plan that has a $40 monthly fee for the first phone. For each extra phone, there is a $15 phone service charge and a $10 text service charge. The expression 40 + 15e + 10e respresents the total phone bill in dollars, where e is the number of extra phones.

Answer 1

Okay. So when it comes to combining like terms, they should have the same variable and power. They dont have to be the exact same number, but they should at least have the same terms. In the expression 40 + 15e + 10e, 15e and 10e both have like terms, because they have the same variable. 15e + 10e is 25e. 40 has no like term, so that is left alone. The expression simplified is 40 + 25e.