Question

Kelsey says that to solve the equation 3x + 6 = 24, the first step should be to subtract 6 from each side of the equation. Dana says the first step should be to divide each term by 3. Decide and explain if Kelsey or Dana is doing the first step correctly.

Answer 1

Kelsey is correct.

Explanation:

One of the rules when solving an equation is that you need to isolate the variable, meaning that it just needs to be x by itself. To do that, you would need to start by subtracting 6. If you were to divide by 3 first, the answer would be twice what it should be.