What is the first step?

Question

The equation  is written in standard form. What is

the first step when writing an equivalent equation which solves for y?

Add 7x to both sides of the equation.

Subtract 7x from both sides of the equation.

Add 30 to both sides of the equation.

Subtract 30 from both sides of the equation.

Answer 1

You're trying to get y on its own. The first thing to do is get rid of any term that does not contain a y from the side where the y is. So you would remove the 7x first. Since it is a positive 7x, you must subtract it from both sides.

Next you would divide each term by -10 ... that will finish the problem. However, that wasn't asked. :-)