Question

How do you solve `–5x – 7 < 28`?

Answer 1

Get rid of the constant first, then the coefficient.

Explanation:

Let's look at the equation.

`-5x-7 < 28`

We want to solve this inequality step by step.

First, get rid of the constant. In this case, it would be the `7`. We can do this by adding 7 to both sides.

`-5x < 35`

Looks a lot easier now! We just multiply both sides by `-5` to get the answer.

There's a catch, though. When you multiply both sides of an inequality by a negative coefficient, you have to flip the inequality. So,

`-5x < 35`
becomes,
`x > -7`

which is the answer.