5x + 14 = -7. What does x equal? Show the process.

Answer 1

Anytime you solve for x, you need to isolate it on one side of the equation. For this equation, our first step would be to subtract 14 from both sides. This would leave you with 5x = -7 -14 or 5x = - 21. Now, since our x is currently multiplied by 5, we need to divide it by 5 to isolate x. What we do to one side of the equation, we must do to the other side to keep both sides equal. After dividing both sides by 5, we would be left with x = - 21 / 5. Simplified, you could also say x = - 4 and 1/5.