 In this video, we're going to look at how to simplify algebraic expressions. Before we get started on simplifying, a few things to remember. In the algebraic notation video, we discovered that we always use a curly x for the letter. That we don't really use a multiplication sign, so this means three multiplied by a, and x multiplied by y, and instead of using the division sign, we use fractions. Right, so simplifying. In algebra, we are often asked to simplify or to put something in its simplest form. Generally speaking, the simpler it is, the easier it is to use. We just need to combine like terms, so we can combine the a's to get 8a, then the b's, including the sign in front of each term, to get positive 2b, and finally, the numbers, to get negative 5. We cannot combine different letters, so this is the simplest form. This expression might represent 8 apples and 2 bananas, which are completely different things, so we can't combine them. Can you simplify these four things? Don't worry if you aren't sure, just give them a go, and we'll go through the explanations after. Pause the video, try the questions, and click play when you're ready. How did you get on? For the first one, we just do 2 multiplied by 3 is 6, and remove the multiplication sign, so we get 6xy. In the second one, we group the same letters together, so 2 plus 6 minus 5 gives us 3c. Here, we need to get rid of the multiplication sign, which would give us dd, but we can improve on that even further by writing d squared. If the question had been this, then it would be d cubed, all this would be d to the power of 4, and then similar to the second question, we group the same letters together, but they must be the same letter, so 4a subtract 2a is 2a. For division, you can cancel out the numbers exactly as you would with fractions, and we can also cancel out letters, so 10 divided by 2 is 5. And then, because we have 5 a's in the numerator, and there are 3 in the denominator, this means we can cancel out 3 of the a's from both the numerator and denominator, leaving just 2a's in the numerator, and then the same for the b's. We can cancel out 2b's, leaving just 2b's in the denominator, giving us our final answer. You don't need to write out all of the letters every time, you can just look at the powers. So 5 subtract 3 leaves 2 on top, and 4 on the bottom subtract 2 leaves 2 on the bottom. So here's some questions for you to do. Pause the video, give them a go, and click play when you're ready. How did you get on? So there are a few different ways of simplifying algebraic expressions. We can also simplify by factoring things into brackets, or by expanding brackets, which is skills we'll look at in future videos. If you liked the video, give it a thumbs up, and don't forget to subscribe, comment below if you have any questions. Why not check out our Fuse school app as well. Until next time.