From the course: Preparing for the GMAT

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Linear equations

Linear equations

From the course: Preparing for the GMAT

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Linear equations

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- [Instructor] One of the most basic skills we'll need in algebra is the ability to isolate a variable so that we can find its value or solve for it. So in this video, we'll talk about solving linear equations, IE equations that don't have exponents. So what if I had something like this, 3x+5/4=25, and somebody was like hey, what is x? X equals what? So basically what we want to do is do the same operation to both sides of the equation in order to get x by itself. So one of the first things I want to do is I want to, I see this left side is divided by four, so I'm going to multiply both sides of the equation by four. So that will cancel out this four, and over here, I'll just rewrite it down here, 3x+5=25x4, in other words, 100. So 3x+5=100. I want to do the minus five from both sides first, and I'll tell you why. If I divided both sides by three, then I would also have to divide this five by three, and I really don't want to do that if I don't have to. So instead, I'm going to…

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