Question

How do you solve `-10+x+4-5=7x-5`?

Answer 1

First, you gather all the "x" terms on one side of the equation;

Explanation:

and all of the constants on the other side of the equation.

You have:
`-10 + x + 4 - 5 = 7x - 5`

1st: subtract x from both sides of the equation.
(We want to move the x over to the right-hand side, so we do the opposite operation on x. X is positive on the left, so we subtract, and we have to do the same thing to both sides of an equation.):

`-10 + x + 4 - 5 = 7x - 5`
`.........- x...........- x`

You then have:
`- 10 + 4 - 5 = 6x - 5`

All the x's are now on the right-hand side of the equation.

Now combine the constants on the left side of the equation:
`- 10 + 4 - 5 = - 15 + 4 = - 11`

so we have:
`- 11 = 6x - 5`

There is one more constant to move, so add it to both sides:
We have: `- 11 + 5 = 6x` , which is `- 6 = 6x`

Let's write it as:
`6x = - 6`

Now we need to divide both sides by - 6 in order to end up with only one x:
`(6x)/ - 6 = - 6 / - 6`,

which equals:
`- x = 1`

Since we want to know what positive x is, we now multiply both sides of the equation by `- 1` to get:

`x = - 1`
which is the answer.

Now check by plugging `- 1` back into the original equation:
`- 10 - 1 + 4 - 5 = 7(- 1) - 5`

Do both sides add up to negative 12? They should.