How do you solve a linear equation?

A linear equation simply means there are no squared's or cubed's or any other nasty bits in it. It could look like this:

15x + 19 = 49

To solve this, you subtract 19 from both sides to give:

15x = 30

Then divide both sides by 15 so you find x = 2

You can sometimes find an equation with two variables in it such as 4x + 5y = 100. However you cant find two variables form one equation, you need two and this is called simultaneous equations.

On the secondary problem, such as 4x + 5y = 100, you can use the substitution method.

It involves setting the x to zero and solving, and then setting y to zero and solving.

Let's solve for "y":

• 4(0) + 5y = 100
• 5y = 100
• 5y/5 = 100/5
• y = 20

Therefore the ordered pair is (0, 20)

Let's solve for "x":

• 4x + 5(0) = 100
• 4x = 100
• 4x/4 = 100/4
• x = 25

Therefore the ordered pair is: (25, 0)