Question

Question

Solve for x.

​4 (x − 20) = −20​

Enter your answer in the box.


x = ?

Answer 1

the answer is x=15

first you distribute since X -20 is in parentheses. Since there is no number in front of X, you place a understood one. So you would do 4×1, to get 4X. Then he would do four times -20, to get -80. Move that down along with “= -20.” so now, your problem should look like this.

4x-80=-20

what you do next is add 80 to the -20. when trying to get your x alone, you always do the opposite of the property it’s telling you to. if it tells you to do addition, you do subtraction, same goes with multiplication and division. So when you add 80 to the -20, you should get 60. Now, your problem should look something like this.

4x=60

So since four is directly next to the X that would usually mean multiply, but since you’re doing the opposite, you divide. And what you do to one side you always do to the other. So if you divide 4 by 4, you get zero, leaving X alone. Then what you do next is divide 60 by 4. Then you should get your answer of….

x = 15

Answer 2

the solution for x is 15.

Explanation:

First, we can simplify the equation by dividing both sides by 4:

x - 20 = -5

Then we can solve for x by adding 20 to both sides of the equation:

x - 20 + 20 = -5 + 20