Question

How do you solve `-4= m - 14`?

Answer 1

Add 14 to both sides, so you get 10 = m.

Explanation:

With a question formatted like this, you need to find a way to isolate the variable m, to get a clean equation. For -4 = m - 14, you can isolate the variable by adding a positive 14 to both sides, giving the equation, -4 + 14 = m -14 + 14.

To simplify the first side, you can rearrange this part to look like
14 + (- 4), which is the same as 14 - 4, which is 10

For the second part, you can rearrange this part to look like
m + 14 + (-14), which is the same as m + 14 -14, which is m + 0 which leaves that part as just "m".

Combine the two parts and you get
10 (from the first part) = "m"(from the second part).

10 = m

Answer 2

The answer is `m=10`.

Explanation:

Isolate the variable `m` by doing the same actions to both sides of the equals sign. In this case, we want to add `14` to both sides. Here's the problem with steps written on the side:

#color(white){color(black)( (-4=m-14, qquadqquad "The original problem"), (-4+14=m-14+14, qquadqquad "Adding "14" to both sides of the equals sign"), (-4+14=mcolor(red)cancel(color(black)(-14+14)), qquadqquad -14" and "14" add up to 0"), (-4+14=m+0, qquadqquad "Rewriting the above step"), (-4+14=m, qquadqquad m+0" is just "m), (10=m, qquadqquad -4+14" is the same thing as "14-4", which is "10), (m=10, qquadqquad"The answer!"):}#

We arrived at the answer `m=10`. We can verify this answer by plugging `m` back in to the original problem and seeing if it's still true. (Basically, if we get something equaling itself, we're good.)

`color(white)=>-4=m-14`

`=>-4=10-14`

`color(white)=>-4=-4`

Since `-4` does equal `-4`, our answer is correct. Hope this helped!