Question

How do you solve `-(3x + 2) = -19x + 62`?

Answer 1

`x=4`

Explanation:

We're trying to get `x` alone. We need to find ways to manipulate the equation such that we can put all the `x`'s on one side of the equation.

Let's distrubute the negative outside the parenthesis first (you can equivalently divide by -1 on both sides of the equation)

`-(3x+2)=-3x-2=-19x+62`

Now, we can add the `19x` to both sides of the equation so that we're getting rid of it on the right side.

`-3x+19x-2=(-19x+19x)+62`

`16x-2=62`

We're close to getting `x` alone. We can add the `2` to both sides now so that it cancels out on the left side.

`16x=62+2=64`

Now, all we need to do is divide by `16` on both sides of the equation to get the value of `x`.

`x=64/16=4`