Solving Equations
Using Division
Recall beginning to solve the equation "x + 23 = 3x + 45". Applying addition
and subtraction gave
| (from previous page) |
2x |
= |
-22 |
But our end goal is to determine what x is, not what 2x is! Imagine that
three investors own an equal share in the company Example.Com. The total worth of
Example.com is $300,000. To determine what the share of each investor is, simply
divide the total investment by 3:
$300,000 / 3 = $100,000
Thus, each investor has a $100,000 stake in Example.com. We apply the same idea
to finding the value of x. However, instead of dividing by the number of investors,
we divide by the coefficient of the variable. Since we determined that the
coefficient of x is 2, we divide each side of the equation by 2:
| After dividing by 2 |
1x |
= |
-11 |
| |
| Finally rewritten as |
x |
= |
-11 |
Continue to the next page for additional resources and tools for help with basic equations.
Previous
1
2
3
4
5
R
Next
