it gives me long dry headaches.

Solve the value equation
2/3x - 5/ - 8=8

I know I have to add that -8 to the right side of the equal sign.

With the slash, I don't know if the -8 is a divisor for the 5. If it is, you don't add 8 to both sides. If the slash was a typo, add 13 to both sides. Then multiply both sides by 3x.

@ psyDAG its lines like brackets this is a type of inequality problem and I solved part of it positive but when I use negatives to test its absolute value, everything falls apart.

ahhh, so you mean

2|3x-5| - 8 = 8
then
2|3x-5) = 16
|3x-5| = 8

3x-5 = 8 or -3x+5 = 8
3x = 13 or -3x = 3
x = 13/3 or x = -1

I think the 8 at the right of the = must be either positive or negative. And solve both ways it made a little sense for me when 8 was positive. Not when it was negative

To solve the value equation (2/3x - 5)/(-8) = 8, you are correct that you need to add 8 to the right side of the equation. However, there seems to be a mistake in the equation you provided. The numerator of the fraction (2/3x - 5) should not be divided by -8.

If the equation is supposed to be (2/3x - 5) / -8 = 8, then the first step to solve the equation would be to multiply both sides of the equation by -8 to remove the denominator:

((-8)(2/3x - 5)) / -8 = 8 * -8

This simplifies to:

2/3x - 5 = -64

To isolate the variable x, you can then add 5 to both sides of the equation:

(2/3x - 5) + 5 = -64 + 5

This simplifies to:

2/3x = -59

Finally, to solve for x, you can multiply both sides of the equation by the reciprocal of 2/3, which is 3/2:

(2/3x) * (3/2) = -59 * (3/2)

This simplifies to:

x = -59 * (3/2) / (2/3)

To evaluate this expression, you can multiply -59 by 3, and then divide the result by 2:

x = -177 / 2

Hence, the solution to the value equation is x = -177 / 2.