# How do you evaluate -14c - - 12c + 1= - 7?

Mar 28, 2018

$c = 4$

#### Explanation:

Since we are subtracting a negative $12 c$ this turns into adding $12 c$. Thus, we have

$- 14 c + 12 c + 1 = - 7$

We can simplify the terms on the left to get

$- 2 c + 1 = - 7$

Next, we can subtract $1$ from both sides to get:

$- 2 c = - 8$

Next, we can divide both sides by $- 2$ to get

$c = 4$

Hope this helps!

Mar 28, 2018

If you treat subtraction of a negative value as addition of a positive, you can simplify the expression and solve: $c = 4$

#### Explanation:

The first thing to do is to combine like terms. both the 14 and 12 are multiplied by $- c$, so we can combine those:

$\textcolor{b l u e}{- 14 c} - \textcolor{g r e e n}{- 12 c} + 1 = - 7$

$\Rightarrow - \left(\textcolor{b l u e}{14} - \textcolor{g r e e n}{12}\right) c + 1 = - 7$

$\Rightarrow - 2 c + 1 = - 7$

Now, let's move the +1 constant to the Right Hand Side. This will be achieved by subtracting 1 from both sides:

$- 2 c \cancel{+ 1 - 1} = - 7 - 1$

$\Rightarrow - 2 c = - 8$

Finally, we divide both sides by any constants that our unknown variable is multiplied by. In this case, that constant is -2:

$\frac{\cancel{- 2} c}{\cancel{- 2}} = \frac{- 8}{- 2}$

$\textcolor{red}{\Rightarrow c = 4}$