From the course: Learning Algebra: Solving Equations

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Using opposite operations when solving equations

Using opposite operations when solving equations

From the course: Learning Algebra: Solving Equations

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Using opposite operations when solving equations

- As we begin talking about the basics to solving equations, another term that you will hear me use is opposite operations. In order to isolate the variable, which we just talked about in the last lesson, we will need to use opposite operations. This is actually pretty easy. Let's take a look. We're going to begin by looking at the equation, the operation, and what's known as the opposite operation that we'll need to use in order to solve the equation. So our first equation is x plus three equals five. We know that we need to isolate the variable which is x, which means we need to get x by itself. That means we need to get rid of the three. So we need to look at the operation. The operation is plus three. The operation is the addition sign. Since we need to get rid of the plus three, we need to use an opposite operation. The opposite of addition is subtraction. So we would subtract three in this equation. Let's take a look at another equation, x minus three equals two. Again, we want…

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