Justify your steps using the properties of equality and determine the number of solutions to the equation 3/2 (4 - 8x) + 5x = 1 - 7x

1 answer

To solve the equation

\[ \frac{3}{2}(4 - 8x) + 5x = 1 - 7x, \]

we will apply the properties of equality step by step.

Step 1: Distribute \(\frac{3}{2}\)

Using the distributive property:

\[ \frac{3}{2} \cdot 4 - \frac{3}{2} \cdot 8x + 5x = 1 - 7x. \]

This simplifies to:

\[ 6 - 12x + 5x = 1 - 7x. \]

Step 2: Combine like terms on the left side

Now we combine the \(x\) terms:

\[ 6 - 12x + 5x = 6 - 7x. \]

So, we rewrite the equation as:

\[ 6 - 7x = 1 - 7x. \]

Step 3: Add \(7x\) to both sides

Next, we can add \(7x\) to both sides to simplify further:

\[ 6 - 7x + 7x = 1 - 7x + 7x. \]

This simplifies to:

\[ 6 = 1. \]

Step 4: Analyze the result

At this point, we see that the equation \(6 = 1\) is not true. This indicates that there are no values of \(x\) that can satisfy the original equation.

Conclusion:

The original equation has no solutions. In summary, we applied the properties of equality to manipulate the equation step by step and found that it leads to a contradiction. Thus, the number of solutions to the equation is:

\[ \boxed{0}. \]