You can
put this solution on YOUR website!There is NO exact way to do it. However, I'm going to share with you some secrets that your teacher most likely doesn't tell you on this topic. Teachers do it all the time but don't point it out.
A two-step equation is when you have to make two moves to finally get yourself to the position to (finally) write "x= some number". You will ALWAYS perform EXACTLY one addition or subtraction move, and EXACTLY one division or multiplication move. Actually, you will ALWAYS perform the addition or subtraction move first with the constant term, then the multiplication or division first with the term with the variable (usually, it's division for beginning Algebra).
Let's take
as an example of a two-step equation.
Your teacher ALWAYS tells you that you want to finally get the x to be by itself. The first thing that you should think about is to getting the term with the variable by itself first on one side of the equation. This is always accomplished by moving the constant term to the other side of the equation first. In this case, the +1 on the left needs to be transferred to the right side. When you do that, YOU MUST change the +1 to a -1 when it gets to the other side. (TIP: Whenever moving terms from one side of the equation to another ONLY by addition or subtraction, CHANGE THEIR SIGNS!). That's the same thing as subtracting a 1 from both sides of the equation, which your teacher insists that you think about.
So far,
which really is
<------- We moved the +1 to the right side of the equation and it became -1. When combined with the 10 by addition/subtraction, the right side ended up becoming a 9.
Your second step is to divide BOTH sides by 3. This forces the x to be by itself on the left. On the right, you'll end up with 9/3 which is 3. In this case, x = 3.
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Another example:
<---- Step 1: Move the constant term to the other side. Notice that the constant's sign changes when you move it across the equals sign.
<----- When the right-hand side is simplified by addition, you'll end up with a problem like this where you just have to find the x, which multiplied to the number it's stuck with to get to the number on the right. Dividing both sides by 5 gets you to finally say x = 10.
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Another example:
<---- Move constant term 57 to the right and it becomes -57.
<---- Divide both sides by 7 and you'll get x = -8.
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Another example:
<----- move the -9 to the other side and it becomes 9.
You'll see that x = -5 after dividing both sides by -4.
Sometimes, you'll end up with the variable on the right side. This is PERFECTLY OK! Actually, if you didn't like the order that this equation came in, you could've always rewrote it to
and work from there.
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