The problem is: a raised to the 2nd power plus 14a raised to the 5th power plus a raised to the 7th minus 16

a^2 + 14a^5 + a^7 - 16

Why is this a problem?
Looks like just a nice innocent expression to me.

To simplify the expression (a^2 + 14a^5 + a^7 - 16), we can combine like terms by adding or subtracting the coefficients of the same degree monomials.

Step 1: Group the terms with similar powers of 'a' together:
(a^7 + 14a^5) + a^2 - 16

Step 2: We cannot combine a term with a different degree, so let's focus on the terms (a^7 + 14a^5) and (a^2 - 16).

Step 3: Simplify each term individually:

- (a^7 + 14a^5) is already simplified since the terms do not have any like terms to combine.

- (a^2 - 16) cannot be simplified any further since there are no like terms to combine.

Therefore, the simplified expression is:
(a^7 + 14a^5) + (a^2 - 16) or a^7 + 14a^5 + a^2 - 16.