What is the solution to this equation?

x + 4 = 3x

Can you solve this using the vertical line method? How would you do it?

I can solve equations that have variables on both sides.

What do you do if your equation has variables on both sides?

You need to get the variable by itself in order to solve, right? So, how do you do that if the variables are in two places?

Let's look at an example:

2x + 1 = 5x - 8

Remember: you can only combine like terms on the SAME SIDE of the equal sign.

It's often easier to move the x's to the side that has more x's to avoid negative numbers, but you can solve the problem either way as long as you put all the x's on one side and all the numbers on the other.

What happens if you get weird answers?

It may mean there aren't any solutions to that equation. Let's look at an example:

2x + 5 = 2x + 6

Let's do some examples:

Does it help you most to watch me carefully, or to write these down along with me?

1. n - 3n = 14 - 4n

2. 7a − 3 = 3 + 6a

Telepathy time!

Complete these problems for a 3

Challenge Work for a 4!