Question

How many solutions does 3(x+5)=-4x+8 have?

Answer 1

1 Solution [the solution is x = -1]

Explanation:

We can use the distributive property [ a(b+c) = ab + ac ] and a little algebra to solve the equation.

The steps are shown below:

`3(x+5)=-4x+8\\3x+15=-4x+8\\3x+4x=8-15\\7x=-7\\x=(-7)/(7)\\x=-1`

By solving this equation, we see that there is ONLY 1 SOLUTION to this equation.

Note: whenever we have a linear equation (highest power of x is 1, such as this one), there will be one solution. If the highest power of x was 2, e.g. Quadratic, there would have been 2 solutions to that.