What is the term for the process of replacing variables with numbers and simplifying an expression?

The term for the process of replacing variables with numbers and simplifying an expression is "evaluate." When you evaluate an expression, you substitute each variable with a specific numerical value and then perform the arithmetic operations to simplify the expression to a single numerical result. This process is essential in mathematics, especially in algebra, where you often work with expressions that contain variables.

For example, if you have an expression like 2x + 3 and you need to evaluate it for x = 4, you would replace x with 4 to get 2(4) + 3, which simplifies to 8 + 3, resulting in 11. This showcases how evaluation allows you to find out the numeric value of an expression based on given variable values, leading to an understanding of the behavior of the expression under specific conditions.

The other choices refer to related but distinct concepts. "Calculate" typically means performing arithmetic operations to find a result but doesn’t specifically imply substitution of variables. "Order of operations" is a guideline for the sequence in which operations should be performed in an expression but does not encompass the entire process of evaluating it. "Numerical expression" describes an expression that contains only numbers and operations without variables and thus is not related to the act