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Actually, in an expression (which has no equal sign) the terms are customarily written in alphabetical order:

5a + 6b -3x + 21y.

In an equation (which has an equal sign) the y is often written on the left:

y = 3x - 2.

This is because the most common graphs have x on the horizontal axis and y on the vertical axis. A graph like this shows how y depends on x. x is the independent variable (which we choose), and y is the dependent variable (which we figure out). If we have a value for x, say 5, then we can figure out y:

y = 3x - 2 = 3(5) - 2 = 15 - 2 = 13.

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12y ago

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Q: Why does y come before x in an expresion?
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