5/26/2017 AlgebraLinearEquations

LinearEquations
Wellstartoffthesolvingportionofthischapterbysolvinglinearequations.Alinearequationisany
equationthatcanbewrittenintheform

whereaandbarerealnumbersandxisavariable.Thisformissometimescalledthestandardformofa
linearequation.Notethatmostlinearequationswillnotstartoffinthisform.Also,thevariablemayormay
notbeanxsodontgettoolockedintoalwaysseeinganxthere.

Tosolvelinearequationswewillmakeheavyuseofthefollowingfacts.

1.If then foranyc.Allthisissayingisthatwecanaddanumber,c,tobothsidesof

theequationandnotchangetheequation.

2.If then foranyc.Aswiththelastpropertywecansubtractanumber,c,fromboth

sidesofanequation.

3.If then foranyc.Likeadditionandsubtractionwecanmultiplybothsidesofan

equationbyanumber,c,withoutchangingtheequation.

4.If then foranynonzeroc.Wecandividebothsidesofanequationbyanonzero

number,c,withoutchangingtheequation.

Thesefactsformthebasisofalmostallthesolvingtechniquesthatwellbelookingatinthischaptersoits
veryimportantthatyouknowthemanddontforgetaboutthem.Onewaytothinkoftheserulesisthe
following.Whatwedotoonesideofanequationwehavetodototheothersideoftheequation.Ifyou
rememberthatthenyouwillalwaysgetthesefactscorrect.

Inthissectionwewillbesolvinglinearequationsandthereisanicesimpleprocessforsolvinglinear
equations.Letsfirstsummarizetheprocessandthenwewillworksomeexamples.

http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/Alg/SolveLinearEqns.aspx 1/1