How do you solve #-31= 8 - 6p - 7p#?

1 Answer
Oct 29, 2015

#p=3#

Explanation:

First, you always want to get like terms on one side. Here we have constants and #p# as our terms. If we subtract #8# from both sides, we will get:

#-31-8=-6p-7p#

Then, we can combine the like terms. We can determine that #-31-8# is #-39# and #-6p-7p# is #-13p#. We can then rewrite the equation as:

#-39=-13p#

Since we are trying to solve for #p#, we can divide both sides by a constant of #-13# to isolate the variable #p#. When we divide on the right side, we are left with just #p#. When we divide on the left side, we get #(-39)/-13#, which is #3#. Thus, writing out equation again, we see that:

#3=p#

By using the reflexive property of equations, we can say that:

#p=3#.