To simplify <em>4 + 6(7x + 7), </em>we must combine like terms. Right off the bat, we can see what we have to do thanks to the order of operations.
<em>* original equation </em><em>4 + 6(7x + 7) </em> <em>* alright, so - since we can't do anything in the parenthesis, we now have to see what we can do multiplication wise. </em><em>4 + 42x + 42 </em> <em>* alright, so we could multiply the two 7's by 6, but now what? well, we can't do anything else to the 42x because of the variable, so we have to now add 4 and 46! </em><em> </em><em>and our simplified equation is... 42x + 46! =)</em>