Solve each equation. What am I doing wrong because the answer is suppose to be 11/2 and I don't get the answer. Here's what I'm doing...
Problem: 2x+1/4-3x-4/5=1/2
I get: 10x+5-12x-16=10
Which gives me -2x=21
My answer is -21/2
the correct answer is suppose to be 11/2
The way you typed it ...
2x+1/4-3x-4/5=1/2
-x = 1/2 - 1/4 + 4/5
-x = 21/20
x = -21/10 or -1.05
check:
LS = 2(-1.05) + .25 -3(1.05) - .8 = .5
RS = 1/2 = .5
My answer works for the way you wrote the equation
RS =
To solve the equation, let's go through the steps together:
Given equation: 2x + 1/4 - 3x - 4/5 = 1/2
1. Combine like terms:
2x - 3x + 1/4 - 4/5 = 1/2
Simplify: -x + 1/4 - 4/5 = 1/2
2. Find a common denominator for the fractions:
In this case, the common denominator is 20, which is the least common multiple of 4 and 5.
-x + 5/20 - 16/20 = 10/20
3. Continue simplifying:
-x - 11/20 = 1/2
4. Now, let's isolate the variable x by moving the constants to the other side of the equation:
Start by adding 11/20 to both sides:
-x = 1/2 + 11/20
Simplify the right side of the equation:
-x = 10/20 + 11/20
-x = 21/20
5. To solve for x, multiply both sides of the equation by -1 to eliminate the negative sign in front of x:
(-1)(-x) = (-1)(21/20)
x = -21/20
Now, it seems that you made a mistake when you were simplifying step 4. You added 11/20 to both sides of the equation instead of subtracting it. The correct calculation would be:
-x - 11/20 = 1/2
-x = 1/2 + 11/20
-x = 10/20 + 11/20
-x = 21/20
Finally, multiplying both sides by -1 gives you:
x = -21/20
However, the original problem only asks for the answer in simplified form. To simplify the fraction -21/20, you can divide both the numerator and denominator by their greatest common divisor, which is 1:
x = -21/20 = -1 * 21 / (1 * 20) = -21/20
So, it appears that there was a mistake in the original problem. The answer is indeed -21/20, not -21/2 or 11/2.