I have two terms. 3.675v^1 + 0.096v^2 do I add these exponents?

you cannot add exponents when you're adding terms, only when multiplying terms.

a^n x a^m= a^(n+m)

The length of a rectangle is 5 inches greater than the width. The sum of the length and width is 41 inches. Find the length and width of the rectangle.

No, you do not add the exponents when adding two terms with different powers of the variable. The exponents represent the degree of the variable in each term. In your expression, you have two terms: 3.675v^1 and 0.096v^2.

To simplify or add these terms together, you can only combine the coefficients (the numbers in front of the variable) if the exponents are the same. In this case, the exponents are different, one is 1 and the other is 2. Therefore, you cannot perform direct addition of these terms.

To represent the sum of these terms, you would simply write:

3.675v^1 + 0.096v^2

This expression retains both terms separately since they cannot be simplified further by adding their coefficients.