<s>[INST] How to simplify polynomials I can't figure out how to simplify this polynominal $$5x^2+3x^4-7x^3+5x+8+2x^2-4x+9-6x^2+7x$$
I tried combining like terms
$$5x^2+3x^4-7x^3+5x+8+2x^2-4x+9-6x^2+7x$$
$$(5x^2+5x)+3x^4-(7x^3+7x)+2x^2-4x-6x^2+(8+9)$$
$$5x^3+3x^4-7x^4+2x^2-4x-6x^2+17$$
It says the answer is $$3x^4-7x^3+x^2+8x+17$$ but how did they get it?
 [/INST] Observe the magical power of color:
$$\color{blue}{5}x^\color{blue}{2}+3x^4-7x^3+\color{green}{5}x+\color{orange}{8}+\color{blue}{2}x^\color{blue}{2}+(\color{green}{-4})x+\color{orange}{9}+(\color{blue}{-6})x^\color{blue}{2}+\color{green}{7}x.$$
Instead of Color-Me-Elmo, we have Color-Me-Like-Terms-And-Combine (not as catchy, I know):
$$3x^4-7x^3+(\color{blue}{5}+\color{blue}{2}+(\color{blue}{-6}))x^\color{blue}{2}+(\color{green}{5}+(\color{green}{-4})+\color{green}{7})x+(\color{orange}{8}+\color{orange}{9}).$$
Presto-simplification-o!

Combining Like Terms
In a polynomial $p(x)=a_nx^n+a_{n-1}x^{n-1}+\dots+a_1x+a_0$ and $q(x)=b_nx^n+b_{n-1}x^{n-1}+\dots+b_1x+b_0$, they are added thusly:
$$
\begin{align}
p(x)+q(x)&=a_nx^n+b_nx^n+a_{n-1}x^{n-1}+b_{n-1}x^{n-1}+\cdots+a_1x+b_1x+a_0+b_0\\
&=(a_n+b_n)x^n+(a_{n-1}+b_{n-1})x^{n-1}+\cdots+(a_1+b_1)x+(a_0+b_0).
\end{align}
$$
In other words, add the coefficients of terms with the same power. 
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