How do you solve $| 5 - t | = 3$ $|5 - t| = 3$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2016-07-15T21:39:50

the answer is 2

Edit: The answer can also be 8.

The first case gives:

$5 - t = 3$ $5 - t = 3$

solve for t

$- t = 3 - 5$ $- t = 3 - 5$

$- t = - 2$ $- t = -2$

$\Rightarrow t = 2$ $implies t = 2$

Edit: What the magnitude function does here is transform negative solutions to positive, this means that we have two cases:

$5 - t = 3$ $5-t = 3$ as the original answer had

and

$5 - t = - 3$ $5-t = -3$

$therefore t = 5-3 or t = 5+3$

$implies t =2 or 8$

How do you solve |5 - t| = 3|5−t|=3 |5 - t| = 3?