Solve 9x - 3 = 4x + 17

The objective of the question is to find an answer to x = ?, where ? is a number.

Start by 'moving' all the x's to one side of the equals sign and all the numbers to the other. This can be done by adding / subtracting the values from both sides.

9x - 3 - 4x = 4x + 17 - 4x         goes to        9x - 4x - 3 = 17

9x - 4x - 3 + 3 = 17 + 3           goes to         9x - 4x = 17 + 3

Boths sides of the equation are then to be simplified

5x = 20

Divide both sides by the coefficient of x (the number before the x) which is 5 in this case

5x / 5 = 20 / 5

x = 4