No. M does not equal anything. We are just given some numbers and told to simplify them. It's practice for doing solvable equations later on. Of course, I could be entirely wrong. :p
Yeah that is it. I keep getting something totally off: 5mn-n(6m-2m^2) => 30m^2n - 10m^3n - 6mn + 2m^2n -10m^3n + 32m^2n - 6mn What am I doing wrong? I'm pretty sure I'm missing something really crucial that I can't remember. @_@ No, you're correct with that. lulz I'm much further than this elementary algebra, but I mean, I never imagined coming across a simple problem I couldn't simplify. o.O
An equals sign is a scale telling you that both sides are equal. For example, if I give you the equation 5=x with x as an unknown, you can deduce that x=5. This is subconsciously what we do when we do a simple equation like 5+5=. We actually are doing the equation 5+5=x and solving it to discover what x is equal to. For the equation above, it is just a more complex way of saying something along the lines of 10x10, without an equals sign, meaning you simplify what you're given, but cannot solve it. So in the 10x10 case, it would simplify to 100.
Found out why my arthmatic was wrong. Also, Monopoly, your result was wrong. P had it right the first time. 5mn-n(6m-2m^2) 5mn - 6mn + 2m^2n -mn + 2mn^n I was treating (5mn-n) as a single term, which it wasn't. I had to distribute the (-n) into (6m-2m^2) the whole time. Wow. XD
