How do you simplify an algebraic term?

Answer 1

That depends a lot on the term. Some of course can't be simplified - each expression has a simplest possible equivalent, no matter how you define "simple". Sometimes you can add similar terms; sometimes you can use laws of powers to simplify terms; sometimes you can use the distributive property; etc. You just have to go through an algebra book, and do lots of exercises, to get the hang of what you can do.