Question

What is the first step?5∣+4∣=20Group of answer choicesGet absolute value alone by dividing by 5 on both sidesGet absolute value alone by subtracting 5 from both sidesSplit into two equations

Answer 1

Solving an Equation with Absolute Value

If we are given an equation of the form:

| ax + b | = c

The procedure starts by splitting the equation into two equations to account for the sign of the absolute value.

But if the equation is not in the required form, we must use some algebra to make it look like shown above.

We are given the equation:

5 | x + 4 | = 20

We need to remove the 5 from the left side before applying the procedure, so we simply divide by 5 on both sides to get:

| x + 4 | = 4

Answer: First choice