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Testing solutions to equations

In this math lesson, we learn how to solve an equation with one variable. We test different values for x to see which one satisfies the equation. By substituting x with the given options, we find the correct solution that makes both sides of the equation equal. Practice makes perfect!

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  • blobby green style avatar for user William can't do math
    i think all this math is hurting my head
    (75 votes)
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  • orange juice squid orange style avatar for user raineeee
    Help! When I attempted to solve for x, I got 5x is equal to 4x. Here's how I did it.
    5x-3=4x+3. -3 and +3 cancel out to 0, so I am left with5x=4x.
    (30 votes)
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  • blobby blue style avatar for user Sara
    So i did the equation, but im not sure i did it right.
    5x-3=4x+3
    +3 +3
    5x = 4x+6
    -4x -4x
    x=6
    Is this the right way to do it?
    (19 votes)
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    • stelly blue style avatar for user Kim Seidel
      Yes. As shown in this video, you can also check your answer by substituting it back into the original equation. Simplify both sides and make sure they are equal.

      5(6)-3 = 4(6)+3
      30-3 = 24+3
      27 = 27
      They are equal, so you have a good solution.
      (17 votes)
  • blobby green style avatar for user bbarnhart2
    He makes everything look so easy
    (22 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Razyah Mack
    I think your videos make my head spin and I have an A in math plus the highest A in the class. You need to just slow down and stop making people have to pause the video
    (14 votes)
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  • aqualine seed style avatar for user myangel watson
    7+5(x-3)=22 if x=4,5,6 and 7 which is correct and could you give me an example
    (1 vote)
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    • stelly blue style avatar for user Kim Seidel
      I'll do the 4 as an example:
      1) Swap out "x" and replace it with the given value: 7 + 5(4 - 3) = 22
      2) Follow order of operations rules (PEMDAS) to simplify the left side
      -- Do the work inside the parentheses: 7 + 5(1) = 22
      -- Multiply: 7 + 5 = 22
      -- Add: 12 = 22
      3) Are the 2 sides equal? No. This means 4 is not a solution to the equation. If the 2 sides are equal, then the number would be a solution.

      Hope this helps.
      (18 votes)
  • blobby green style avatar for user asc94306
    If you don’t have choices then you can estimate.
    Like 5x-3=4x+3 you can estimate to about 5.
    Also, how do you simplify?
    (5 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user EliyhaM
    how can I do it
    (1 vote)
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    • stelly blue style avatar for user Kim Seidel
      Did you watch the video? Did you read the other questions and responses. Multiple responses provide step-by-step instructions. Here is one that I posted 16 days ago:

      If someone gives you an algebraic equation and asks if a specific value is a solution or not, here's what you do.
      1) Replace each instance of the variable in the equation with the value you were given.
      2) Follow order of operations rules (PEMDAS) for each side of the equation. Do the math until you have one number on both sides.
      3) If the 2 sides are equal (they have the same number), then the value you were given is a solution to the equation. If the 2 sides are not equal, then you either have a math error or the given value is not a solution to the equation.

      Hope this helps.
      P.S. In future, look at the other info available first. Then try to ask a more specific question about what you don't understand. It will help you learn faster.
      (9 votes)
  • aqualine ultimate style avatar for user Zach
    5(6)-3=4(6)+3
    30-3=24+3
    27=27
    They are equal, so you have a good solution
    (5 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Lil Andresen
    Do you not work the problem so you get the answer rather than fill in possibilities? Ex:
    5x-3=4x+3
    5x-3+3=4x+3+3
    5x=4x+6
    5x-4x=4x-4x+6
    ×=6
    (3 votes)
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    • stelly blue style avatar for user Kim Seidel
      This video was about testing solutions.
      -- You could be given a problem that asks you: is x=7 a solution?
      -- You could have found a possible solution like you did in your work above and you want to verify that you have the correct solution.

      In both of these situations, you would use the techniques shown in the video.
      (5 votes)

Video transcript

- [Voiceover] So we've got an equation here, it says five times x minus three is equal to four times x plus three. So, what we want to do is we want to figure out an x that satisfies this, so there's some number that if I take five, multiply it by that number, subtract three from it, that's going to be the same thing as if I take four times that number and add three to it. And, before we go into how to solve these types of things, let's just first see if we can test whether something does satisfy this equation. And so, I have three options here, I have x could be equal to five, x could be equal to six, and x could be equal to seven. And your goal is to pause this video and figure out which of these x's satisfies this equation, which of these values would make this equation be true. So, I'm assuming that you have tried that, so let's work through each of them, step one by one. So let's see this first one: if x is equal to five, then in order for this to be true, five time five, right, five times x, so five times five minus three needs to be equal to four times, everywhere we see an x we're going to put a five there, four times, actually let me do it this way. Let me just color code it. So this is the same thing as saying five times five minus three, let me do that in that same color, minus three, needs to be equal to four times five, four times five plus three, plus three. Color changing is hard. Plus three. Now, is this true? Let's see, five times five is 25, it's going to be 25 minus three, needs to be equal to 20 plus three. 25 minus three is 22, needs to be equal to 23. No, this is not true. So, x does not equal five, so this is not a solution. Let's try x equals six. So, once again, we're going to do five times our x, which is going to be six, actually let me just write it out, minus three needs to be equal to four times our x, plus three, and in this case our x is six, so it's going to be five times six minus three needs to be equal to four times six plus three. What's five times six? Well, it's 30 minus three, needs to be equal to four times six is 24, and then plus three. Well, this is true, 30 minus three is 27, which is indeed equal to 24 plus 3, it's equal to 27. So x equals 6 does satisfy our equation, it is a solution, and actually as we'll see in the future, the solution to this equation right over here. X equals six satisfies this. Now, just for good measure, let's just varify that x equals seven will not satisfy. So I'm going to move this up a little bit. So if x is equal to seven, we're going to get five times seven minus three needs to be equal to four time seven plus three. And so, we're going to get, and in all these cases we do the multiplication first, order of operations, and it's very clear when you see it kind of in the algebraic notation up here, so we're going to do 35 minus three needs to be equal to 28 plus three, 35 minus three is 32, 28 plus three is 31, these do not equal each other. So this is not a solution to our original equation.