I know exactly how you feel, you raise your hand in class and you say I don't get this. So the teacher "explains" the concept the same way he did 4 minutes again when you started getting confused. Am I right?
Well heres how I managed to get through 2 steps with out my head falling off:
Lets say we have 2x + 6 = 120.
Now X has to be all by itself because it's selfish. So what do you have to do to 9 get get 2x by itself? You Subtract!!!
Why subtract? Well if we have " + 6 " and we need to get rid of it, we need to do the opposite! So we have to make it go away.
And we all know that if you subtract from one side you have to do the same to the other. (Same goes with adding, multiplying, dividing, and any other mathmatical things you might think of.)
So 2x + 6 = 120
-6 -6
That leaves:
2x = 114
Now remember what I said before?
"X" is selfish. So if doesn't want 2 to be by it at all.
AND if a number is my a variable (Or the letters) that means you're multiplying so if we had
Also we have to do the oppsite to the number if we want to get rid of it right?
So we divide!
x = 57. We divide 2 on each side and 114 divide by 2 is 57.
Now, you might be wondering where did the 2 go right? Well since 2 and x are not like terms. ( 2 is a number and X is a variable.) That means they can't be divided, added, mutiplyed, subtracted, ANYTHING, by each other. So we have to divide 2 by 2 and that cancels out.
So x is now alone, and we have our answer.
If that wasn't what you were asking, PLEASE PLEASE email me or something! I would gladly help you anytime.
Good luck!
misslucijean
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