Bot GPT 4-o mini To solve a two-step equation, the first operations you typically need to "undo" are related to the order of operations, which is often summarized as PEMDAS (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication and Division, Addition and Subtraction).
In a two-step equation that looks like this:
\[ ax + b = c \]
- First, you will usually undo the addition or subtraction. If there is a constant term added or subtracted from the variable term (like \(b\) in this case), you will first isolate the term with the variable by performing the opposite operation. For example, if your equation is:
\[ x + 5 = 12 \]
You would subtract 5 from both sides first:
\[ x = 12 - 5 \]
- Next, you'll undo multiplication or division. Once you have isolated the variable term, if the variable is multiplied or divided by a coefficient, you'll then perform the reverse operation to solve for the variable. Continuing the previous example, if you had:
\[ 3x = 7 \]
You would divide both sides by 3:
\[ x = \frac{7}{3} \]
By following this order—undoing addition or subtraction first, followed by multiplication or division—you can systematically solve the equation.
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