Courageously Solving Equations with Fractions

We summoned our courage on a Friday afternoon and worked on solving equations with fractions in MTH1W.

We worked up from solving equations without fractions, to equations like x/2=4, where we understand that the fraction just means x is divided by 2 and the answer is 4. We can undo that division by 2 by doubling each side.

Next we looked at solving equations with binomial numerators like (x-3)/2=4, and we used the same strategy of doubling each side as a first step to solve.

We then looked at solving equations with variables on both sides like (x+5)/4=3x

Next we looked at questions with fractions on both sides, and variables on both sides. We now needed a new strategy of “make a common denominator” and then we can multiply both sides by that denominator to get rid of it.

We need to work a bit on our notation, but we’re working through the process of solving in a way that makes sense.

We even figured out how to solve when some terms are in fractions and some are not. We turned the 7x term into a fraction by writing a denominator of 1 before progressing.

It ended up being a very productive class where we bravely solved some pretty complicated equations. I hope we did enough practice to retain the skills until next week.