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Monomials

Monomials are algebraic expressions with a single term that can consist of constants and variables multiplied together, with exponents of variables being whole numbers. The degree of a monomial is found by adding the exponents of its variables, and rules for adding and subtracting monomials include being able to combine similar terms and factoring out common factors for dissimilar terms.

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163 views4 pages

Monomials

Monomials are algebraic expressions with a single term that can consist of constants and variables multiplied together, with exponents of variables being whole numbers. The degree of a monomial is found by adding the exponents of its variables, and rules for adding and subtracting monomials include being able to combine similar terms and factoring out common factors for dissimilar terms.

Uploaded by

Myka Jamito Francisco
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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hat are Monomials?

In algebra, monomials are the algebraic expressions having a single term only. As
opposed to monomials, binomial contain two terms and a trinomial has three terms.
Binomial and trinomial are also known as a polynomial. Polynomial is an algebraic
expression that has multiple terms. In this article, we will focus on monomial
expressions.

A monomial consists of constants and variables which may be multiplied together. Any
individual number or variable is a monomial. For example, the number 3 and the
variable x are monomials. If they are multiplied together, they will yield a monomial.

Remember that the exponent of the variable of a monomial term should be a whole
number. It means that the terms , and are all the examples of the
monomials because the exponents are whole numbers. Whereas, the terms
, and are not monomials.

Let us see what some of the rules of monomials are.

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Rules of Monomials
 When two monomials are multiplied together, we get another monomial. For
example, and both are the monomials. If they are multiplied with each
other, we will get another monomial .
 When a monomial is multiplied by a constant, we get a monomial term. For
example, when a monomial term is multiplied by 3, we get another
monomial term that is .

Remember that the multiple digit numbers like 23, 638, 1273, 23097 and 987365 are
also monomials.

Degree of Monomials
The degree of a monomial term is found by adding the exponents of all the variables
together in a monomial expression. Constants or numbers in the monomials have 0
degree. Let us understand this by the examples presented in the table below:

Show entries
Search:
Monomials Degree
1+2+2=5
5+4=9
3+2+3=8

6+3=9

Showing 1 to 4 of 4 entries
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Addition of Monomials
Rules for Adding Monomials
 Similar monomials can be added. The sum of the monomials is another monomial that
has the same literal part and whose coefficient is the sum of the coefficients.

 A polynomial expression is obtained if monomials are not similar.

Examples

These monomials are similar, i.e. they have the same exponents. The only difference between
these two monomials is that they have different numbers. To write an answer, we will just add
the numbers up and write the answer as:

You can see that the resultant answer is also a monomial.

2.

The above monomial terms are similar. They have the same variables and their powers, hence we
will write the answer as:

3.

The above monomial terms are not similar, i.e. the exponents are different, hence we
will solve the above example like this:

Since is the common factor in all the three terms, so we can write the above
trinominal as follows after factoring:

4.

The monomials in this example are also not similar, hence we will solve the example
like this:

Since is the common factor of all the above monomial terms, hence we will write
the final answer as follows:
Subtraction of Monomials
Rules for Subtracting Monomials

The rules for subtracting monomials are the same as the rules for adding monomials:

 Similar monomials can be subtracted. The difference of the monomials is


another monomial that has the same literal part and whose coefficient is the
difference of the coefficients.

 A polynomial is obtained if monomials are not similar.


Examples

In the above example, the powers of the variables are the same, hence we will subtract
the coefficients of the variables and write the final answer like this:

2.

In the above examples, the powers of the variables of all the monomial terms are
different. is the common factor in all the monomials. Hence, we will write the
final answer as:

When the monomials involve addition or subtraction sign, it is better to write the final
answer by factoring out the common term.

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