Question 652338
"9(x - 3)" literally means "nine (x - 3)s".

Instead of adding x - 3 to itself 9 times, we can distribute the 9.

9(x - 3) = 12x
9x - 27 = 12x

-27 = 3x (subtracted 9x from both sides because 9x is the like term to 12x)

-9 = x (divided both sides by 3)