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Solving a linear equation breaks down to a few key steps:
- Use the distributive property to get rid of parentheses. The reason we do this is so we can more easily combine like terms in step 2.
- Use arithmetic properties to simplify each side of the equation. We can do this by combining like terms on each side of the equation.
- Group like terms so all the unknowns (the variable) are on one side of the equation and the constants are on the other side of the equation.
- Use arithmetic properties again to simplify to get a value for the unknown.
These steps should give you a solution for any linear equation you encounter.
Just remember: whatever you do on one side of the equation, you have to do on the other in order to keep the equation equivalent!
We can solidify these steps by looking at how they work in an example.
Suppose we want to solve
As we see above, we first want to use the distributive property to get rid of the parentheses.
Now that there are no more parentheses, we can simplify each side individually.
We simplified each side as much as we could, so now we move on to grouping the unknown variable (in this case, this is ) on one side and the rest of the terms on the other side.
So we got our answer! It is always a good idea to check your answers, so try plugging into the original equation to see if it works.

