SOLUTION: How do you know when an equation with one variable has no solution? I believe the answer is: An equation with only one variable does not have a solution because there is no way

Question 349507: How do you know when an equation with one variable has no solution?
I believe the answer is: An equation with only one variable does not have a solution because there is no way for a person to know what that variable is, therefore, there is no solution. For example: 2x. Two times what, equals what? This cannot be solved.
Is this correct? Is there a better way to answer this question?
Also, I registered for this site, but I could not log into it. I would prefer to come to the site to check for my own solutions instead of receiving an e-mail. I registered as dobber2010. Can you see if this has been received, and then tell me how I can log in?
Thank you :)
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
First off, 2x is NOT an equation (since it has no equal sign). It's an expression.

If you said "Two times some number equals 10", then .

So you need to find a number that multiplies by 2 to get 10. To find this number, divide both sides by 2 to get . So this unknown number is 5. In other words, 2 times 5 equals 10.

Now if on the other hand I said that "2 times some number equals 2 times that same number plus 1". I then mean that . Is this possible? The answer is "no" because subtracting 2x from both sides leaves us with which is NOT true

So you'll know when there's no solution when the variable terms cancel and you have an equation that makes no sense (or is clearly false)

As for your login troubles, I would email the admin

Email: ichudov AT algebra.com (replace AT with @ and get rid of the spaces).

If you need more help, email me at jim_thompson5910@hotmail.com

Also, feel free to check out my tutoring website

Jim
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