Question

-3(2z-8)+10z=16

Answer 1

Ready to work on this together?

Answer 2

yes

Answer 3

Beautiful. First thing you want to do is get rid of those parentheses. How do we legally do this?

Answer 4

distribute

Answer 5

Yup! Let's do that. What do we get?

Answer 6

-6z--24+10z=16

Answer 7

Perfect.
And what does the --24 turn into?

Answer 8

negative 24

Answer 9

Remember, you're *subtracting* a negative 24. What happens when you subtract a negative number?

Answer 10

you add both and keep same sign

Answer 11

Well, you're actually changing it to a positive. For example:
4 --24 would turn into 4+24

Answer 12

ok

Answer 13

-6z--24+10z=16
would simplify into
-6z + 24 + 10z = 16
Does that make sense?

Answer 14

yes

Answer 15

Awesome. Now what is the next step to simplifying the left side?

Answer 16

umm you add -6z and 10z

Answer 17

Yup! I'm ssorry for the late reply; lost your question somehow. lol

What do we get?

Answer 18

-3(2z-8)+10z=16
-6z + 24 + 10z = 16
4z + 24 = 16
4z = -8

Do those steps make sense so far?