Question

How do you solve `96= 2( - 8- 8x )`?

Answer 1

You use the distributive property, then solve for `x`.

Explanation:

You first need to use the distributive property to get rid of the brackets.

What is the distributive property?

You multiply everything in the bracket with the number on the outside of the bracket.

For you, you would do.

`2 times -8 and 2 times 8x`

That gives you,

`-16 and 16x`

Now your new equation is

`96 = -16 - 16x`

Now, you ALWAYS want to isolate your variable when you're solving these kinds of questions, and in order to isolate it, you need to get rid of the number in front of the variable.

HOWEVER, first make sure that all the numbers are on one side and the variable is on one side.

Now to have the numbers on one side and the variables on another, you bring over the `-16` to the other side.

Now you'll have

`96 + 16 = -16x" "` (the reason it's `+16` is because when you bring it over you do the opposite of that sign, if it was a positive `16` you would subtract instead)

Now you have,

`112 = -16x`

Like I said before, you ALWAYS want the variable to be by itself, so to get rid of the `-16` from `x`, you divide both sides by `-16`.

`112/(-16) = (-16x)/(-16)`

Here `112/(-16)` is the same as `112` divided by `-16`.

(The reason `x` is by itself is because you can only divide numbers with numbers, so the `x` is left by itself)

Now you have

`- 7 = x`