Real-life examples of combining like terms show why this skill is important.

Let's start with budgeting.

When you manage your money, you usually have many expenses that you can add together to make things simpler.

For example, if you keep track of your monthly spending on groceries, transport, and entertainment, you might note:

• Groceries: $50
• Transport: $30
• Entertainment: $20

Instead of looking at these as separate costs, you can combine them to find the total:

$$50 + 30 + 20 = 100$$

Now you can see that your total spending is $100. This makes it much easier to manage your budget.

Next, let’s think about speed and distance. If you take two trips, one is $40$ miles and the other is $60$ miles, you can write:

$$d_1 + d_2 = 40 + 60$$

Combining these distances shows you quickly that you traveled a total of $100$ miles. This makes your calculations much easier.

Lastly, let’s look at chemistry and how we combine substances. If a recipe needs (2\text{H}_2 + \text{O}) and another one needs (3\text{H}_2 + \text{O}), when we put these together, we get (5\text{H}_2 + 2\text{O}). This is similar to combining like terms in math to get a clearer picture.

In short, whether we are talking about money, distance, or science, combining like terms helps us solve problems and understand things better.