Question

Solve for m.
-3 + m/9 = 10

Answer 1

whats the first step you would take to solve for m?

Answer 2

the goal is to get m by itself on one side of the equation

Answer 3

i have no idea what to do

Answer 4

ok so, do you want to learn this or just get the answer?

Answer 5

if you want to learn ill go over it step by step until you get it

Answer 6

I'd like to learn how to do it

Answer 7

ok so we first need to know what the question is asking, thats the most important part

Answer 8

so i will ask you a couple questions to check your understanding

Answer 9

if i show you 2x = 10

can you tell me what is on the left side of this equation and what is on the right side of this equation?

Answer 10

2x & 10 ?

Answer 11

yes ok perfect, so i think you know what an equation is then

Answer 12

so since 2x and 10 are equal, can you tell me what x is?

Answer 13

x is 5 ?

Answer 14

perfect

Answer 15

you know that 2 times 5 is 10 so x must be 5,

so an easy way to solve this problem is just thinking about it

another way is by isolating the x, meaning get it by itself on one side of the equation, to do that we need to do inverse operations to the numbers in order to rearrange things so that x is by itself, multiplication is inverse of division, division is inverse of multiplication, addition is inverse of subtraction, and subtraction is inverse of addition, they cancel each other out

Answer 16

so again i will show you 2x = 10

Answer 17

x is multiplied by 2, so what is an inverse operation of multiplication?

Answer 18

division?

Answer 19

correct

Answer 20

so if i have 2x = 10 and i want to get x by itself what can i do?

Answer 21

how can i remove the 2?

Answer 22

divide the 2 on both sides?

Answer 23

correct

Answer 24

i think you get this stuff, ok now try your original problem, what would be the first step to get m by itself if I have -3 + m/9 = 10

Answer 25

what do you think?

Answer 26

take a guess

Answer 27

would you multiply 9 on both sides?

Answer 28

i see a negative 3 on the left hand side, which means im subtracting 3 from the left hand side, so what is the inverse of subtraction? what cancels out subtraction?

Answer 29

ohh okay, id add 3 to both sides?

Answer 30

actually you can do what you said, it doesnt matter

Answer 31

so lets it both ways just to see

Answer 32

first lets try it the way you suggested

Answer 33

so if you multiply both sides by 9 what do you get?

Answer 34

-3+m=90

Answer 35

close but you forgot to multiply the whole left side by 9