Question 303098
Add sqrt{x + 17} to both sides.

We now have 2(sqrt{1 - 3x}) = sqrt{x + 17}.

We now square both sides to remove the radicals.

[2(sqrt{1 - 3x})]^2 = [sqrt{x + 17}]^2.

After doing the math on paper, I got x = -1 as the answer.

How do we know if this is right?

Replace every x that you see in the original radical equation given and simplify.

If you get the same answer on both sides of the equation, then you will know for sure.

I did excatly that and found out that x does = -1.