Question

How do you solve `4x - 63= 9x + 57`?

Answer 1

The answer is `-24`.

Explanation:

`4chi - 63 = 9chi + 57`

`4chi - 9chi = 57 + 63`

`-5chi = 120`

`-chi = 120/-5`

`chi = -24`

Answer 2

`x=-24`

Explanation:

`4x-63=9x+57`

We want to get `x` on one side, so we can either remove the `x` on the left side or the `x` on the right. To cancel out the `x` on the left, we need to subtract `4x` from both sides, or alternatively to cancel out the x on the left we subtract `9x` from both sides. For ease I subtracted `4x` from both sides.

`4x-63quadcolor(red)(-quad4x)=9x+57quadcolor(red)(-quad4x)`

`-63=5x+57`

Now we want to get `x` by itself, so we start by subtracting `57` from both sides:

`-63quadcolor(red)(-quad57)=5x+57quadcolor(red)(-quad57)`

`-120=5x`

Divide both sides by 5 to get x completely by itself:

`-120/color(red)5=(5x)/color(red)5`

`-24=x`

`x=-24`