How to Solve an Equation

In this post, you'll learn how to solve an algebraic equation!

What is an Equation?

First of all, you'll want to know what an equation actually is. The dictionary definition of an equation is a statement that the values of two mathematical expressions are equal (indicated by the sign =)., but in more simple terms, an equation is a statement that says that two things are equal using an equals sign.

Let's see an example:

x + 4 = 8

This equation says that what is on the left, x + 4 equals what is on the right, 8

How can you Solve an Equation?

When solving an equation, we want the end result to be x = something. There are a few ways that you can solve an equation. Here are a few of the most basic ones:

Adding or Subtracting the same number from each side

Since the goal is to isolate X on one side, you usually have to do some adding and subtracting to each side. Here's an example:

x + 2 = 4

In this case, we can solve the equation by subtracting two from each side to get

x = 2

Now we've solved the equation!

Multiplying each side by the same number

If you have a pesky equation that has fractions, you can get rid of those fractions by multiplying each side by the same number. For example:

x/3 = 7

If we multiply each side by three, we get

x = 21

Equation solved!

Dividing each side by the same number

Sometimes, there will be parentheses in an equation. The first step that you take is usually to try and remove those parentheses. How do you do that? Dividing! Let's look at this example:

2(x - 2) = 8

First, we'll divide both sides by two to get rid of the parentheses:

x - 2 = 4

Now, we can add two to each side

x = 6

Nice!

---

Thanks for reading!