The first step in solving the equation \( 5.6(x + 1.42) = 7.8 \) is to distribute the \( 5.6 \) across the expression \( (x + 1.42) \). This means you will multiply \( 5.6 \) by both \( x \) and \( 1.42 \).
So, you would rewrite the equation as:
\[ 5.6x + 5.6 \cdot 1.42 = 7.8 \]
Calculating \( 5.6 \cdot 1.42 \) gives you a specific value to simplify the equation further. After that, you can proceed to isolate \( x \).