Paul's Responses in WyzAnt Answers

7x+6=4x+27  The first thing you need to do is get the unknowns, in this case x, to one side and the knowns to the other.

So we subtract 4x from both sides and subtract 6 from both sides

7x+6-4x-6=4x+27-4x-6 or  

7x-4x+6-6=4x-4x+26-6  now solve what we can to simplify and we end up with

3x=21 divide each side by 3

3x/3=21/3 simplify and we end with

x=7

X-5X+52=23 

The first thing you need to do is recognize that X is the same thing as 1X.  So we can rewrite the equation like this:

1X-5X+52=23  Now subtract 5X from 1X which would give us -4X

-4X +52=23  Now let's move the 52 by subtracting 52 from each side of the equation.  We can manipulate any equation as long as we do so on both sides of the equation.  Like this:

-4X+52-52=23-52  All we have to do know is solve the portions of the equation that we know.  

52-52=0  and 23-52=-29 so we would end up with:

-4X=-29  Now we divide each side by -4

-4X/-4=-29/-4  Which would give us:

X=7.25

I hope this made sense, if there is any part of this you don't understand, let me know and I will explaing it further.

Devora,

When you see problems like you posted 3a+4b-3a-b, sometimes it is easier to see them separately.

For example: 3a+4b-3a-b

Can be viewed as:

3a

4b

-3a

-b

and since there is no multiplication or division involved you can perform this in any order you want.  So you could rewrite the equation like this: 3a-3a+4b-b.  

3a-3a is 0 so now we can rewrite the equation like this: 4b-b.  Then we just finish simplifying 4b-b= 3b.

I hope this helps, if yo have any questions let me know.

The pyramid will 8 levels.

The 1st level is a 1x1 =1

The 2nd level is a 2x2=4

The 3rd level is a 3x3=9

And so on until the 8th level which would be 8x8 =64

Then add the total number from each level up to get a total for the whole pyramid.

Just based on the information you have given us

Let X = the number of students and

let H = the number of Hot Dogs needed.  You could write it like this:

2X=H

Any more information in the problem is sure to include either the number of students (X) or the number of Hot Dogs (H).  You can fill in those blanks and solve by multiplying the number of students by 2 to get the number of Hot Dogs needed or divide the number of Hot Dogs by 2 to get the number of students attending.  Hope this helps.