Example: Solving Equations

How to solve equations

Lets take an example equations:

4x + 5 = 13

Steps:

1) Firstly, you want to see what you can get rid of from the equation to just get x by itself. In this case (aswell as most cases), getting rid of the "+ 5" is the most logically and simple thing to do.

2) To get rid of "+5" you need to do the opposite, which is - 5 and when doing +5 - 5 this will equal 0 meaning you successful got rid of it.

3) You also need to remember what you do on the left side of the equal sign in the equation needs to be done on the right side aswell, so do 13 -5 too which ends up being 8.

4) Now, you should be left with 4x = 8.

5) To get rid of the coefficient (number in front of x), in this case 4 you need to the opposite. So because right now its 4x which also mean 4 times x you need to division as dividing is the only way to get rid of a multiple.

6) The opposite of multiplying by &4 is dividing by 4 and this will give an answer of 1.

7) You also need to remember what you do on the left side of the equal sign in the equation needs to be done on the right side aswell,, so do 8 / 4 = 2

8) Now, you should be left with 1x = 2.

9) As 1x can also be written as x, you have solved the equation of x = 2.