Question 445580
|11+2x|=5
..
|11+2x|=5
Because we don't know whether (11+2x) is positive or negative, we need to solve x for these two possibilities. So we treat this problem as two separate equations.

11+2x=5
2x=-6
x=-3
..
11+2x=-5
2x=-16
x=-8
ans:
x=-3 or -8