How to Solve Algebraic Equations

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By William D. Gardlock
eHow Contributing Writer

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Solving Algebraic Equations

Algebra can be a scary word to some people. The simple fact is, however, that solving algebraic equations is quite simple as long as you know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Pencil
Paper
Calculator (optional)

How to solve Algebraic Equations

Step 1

First, let's take a look at the equation we want to solve. We want to solve for x. By this, we simply want to get the 'x' alone on one side of the equal sign 5x+10-5=30
Step 2

The key to solving this and any equation is to use 'reverse operations.' This means to do the opposite. For example, in this equation we would want to add 5 to each side to cancel out the -5. Understand? Not too tough!! 5x+10=35
Step 3

Now that we have rid of the -5, let's get rid of the +10 by subtracting 10 from both sides. 5x=25
Step 4

Now that we have subtracted 10 from both sides we want to get rid of the 5 to get 'x' by itself. The '5x' means '5 times x'. The opposite of multiplication is division. We now want to divide both sides by 5 to get 'x' by itself. x=5
Step 5

We now have our final answer. Use the above steps to complete some of the equations below.