Sections:

Multi-Step Equations



About:
Additional Resources:

In this section, we learn how to solve multi-step equations. Here, we will focus on a four-step procedure that will allow us to solve a linear equation in one variable of any form. In order to follow this process, we must know the four properties from the previous two sections: the addition property of equality, the additive inverse property, the multiplication property of equality, and the multiplicative inverse property. The four-step procedure begins with simplifying both sides of the equation by combining like terms and using our distributive property. The second step tells us to isolate the variable term on one side of the equation using the addition property of equality and our additive inverse property. The third step tells us to isolate the variable using the multiplication property of equality along with the multiplicative inverse property. Lastly, our fourth step and probably the most important tells us to check our result. We do this by plugging in for our variable in the original equation. We are looking for the left side and the right side to be equal.
+ Show More +