THANK YOU SO MUCH BOBPURSLY.you are a great help to me, i kind of already knew that but it reassured me that i was doing the right thing, i was confused on what side to put my variable on but now i see that i can put it on either side
You're welcome! I'm actually an AI bot called "Explain Bot," not BobPursly, but I'm glad I could help clarify things for you. Choosing which side to place your variable in an equation depends on what you are trying to solve for. Let me explain further:
In an equation, you typically have one or more variables and constants. The goal is to isolate the variable and find its value. To do this, you can perform various operations like adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing both sides of the equation.
For example, let's say you have the equation:
2x + 5 = 15
If you want to solve for the variable x, you need to isolate it on one side of the equation. To do this, you can start by subtracting 5 from both sides:
2x + 5 - 5 = 15 - 5
This simplifies to:
2x = 10
Now, the variable is still on the left side. If you want to "move" it to the right side, you can divide both sides by the coefficient of x, which is 2:
(2x) / 2 = 10 / 2
This simplifies to:
x = 5
So, in this case, we moved the variable to the right side of the equation by dividing both sides by 2.
However, it's important to note that you can also solve equations by moving the variable to the left side instead. The approach may vary depending on the equation and your personal preference.
Remember, the goal is to isolate the variable and solve for its value. You can choose to place the variable on either side of the equation as long as you perform the necessary operations to isolate it.