Understand Polynomial Terms: Like & Unlike Terms

[PeekaTweak]

I would like to have someone who would be willing to explain me what is a like term and an unlike term in terms of set theory. I'm just an high-scool student, but I really would like to understand it from that point of view anyway. It doesn't have to be a 1000 pages long of explanations.

 

[topsquark]

I would like to have someone who would be willing to explain me what is a like term and an unlike term in terms of set theory. I'm just an high-scool student, but I really would like to understand it from that point of view anyway. It doesn't have to be a 1000 pages long of explanations.

In terms of polynomials (I can't think of how to applied this to sets) a "like" term is a comparison between two terms of the polynomial. For example, consider the two polynomials [math]3x^2 + 2x - 3[/math] and [math]5x^3 - 3x + 7[/math]. The like terms are the terms that are in both polynomials. Here the there is only one like term: the one in x. (I suppose you could call the constant terms "like" as they are both terms in [math]x^0[/math] but I don't think anyone does this.)

-Dan