Question

Choose the pair of like terms from the following:

Answer 1

Like terms are those which have the same literal coefficients along with different or same numerical coefficients.

So, we have to examine the given choices one after the other.

A) $7xy,4x$: Here, both terms have different literal coefficients, $xy$ and $x$. Therefore, these cannot be like terms.

B) $9,9z$: 9 is a constant while $9z$ is a variable. Therefore, these cannot be like terms.

C) $x^{3}y,xy:$ Again, we observe that the terms have different literal coefficients, and therefore cannot be grouped as like terms.

D) $x^{3}y,12x^{3}y$: Here, both terms have the same literal coefficients, $x^{3}y$. Thus, these terms are denoted as like terms.