Solve 0.5(6d+2)-4=10

Algebra is always a bit confusing when you first learn is as it's the first time letters come into maths, here is the mainthing you should remember:

you have to do the same thing to both sides of the equation!

Let's start with a much simpler example:

x - 5 = 9

to find out what x equals, we need to add 5 to both sides:

x - 5 + 5 = 9 + 5

as you can see the 5's on the left hand side cancel out, so we are left with:

x = 9 + 5 = 14.

Now lets move on to the harder question

0.5(6d+2)-4=10

there looks to be a lot of numbers here doing a lot of different things so go slowly and do each step at a time, first lets add 4 to both sides:

0.5(6d+2)=14

The next thing to deal with is the 1/2, here we need to times each side by 2, as 2x0.5=1, so:

6d+2=14x2

6d+2=28

Now take away 2 from both sides:

6d=28-2

6d=26

And finally divide both sides by 6, as 6/6=1, so:

d = 26/6

While this is the correct answer we can still simplify a bit further by dividing the top and the bottom of the fraction by 2:

d = 13/3

RB
Answered by Rheanne B. Maths tutor

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