Algebra 1 Question! Need explanation!?

You could change the 1 to 4/4 then combine the fractions

on the left to get (x - 8 + 4)/4 = 3x / 4

and since both now have 4 on the bottom you know the

tops are equal: x - 8 + 4 = 3x

x - 4 = 3x

-4 = 2x

-2 = x

you want to get all of the bottom numbers to be the same so we need to fix "1". 1 is the same as 4/4. Now you have (x-8)/4 + 4/4 on the left. Now you can add all of the top numbers together to get (x-8+4) over 4. This will reduce to (x-4)/4 = 3x/4. Multiply both sides by 4 to get rid of the 4 on the bottom. You should have 4(x-4) = 4(3x).

This is now 4x-16 (distributive!) = 12x

try to get the x's on one side so subtract 4x from both sides (what you do for one side you must do for both). This will give you 4x-16-4x = 12x-4x. aka....-16=8x

To get the x by itself, divide both sides by 8. now you have -2=x

Tah dah!!

4x^2 - 8 = 122 including 8 to the two factors so as that the left part basically consists of the unknown x, 4x^2 - 8 +8 = 122 + 8 4x^2 = a hundred thirty Dividing the two factors by way of 4, 4x^2/4 = a hundred thirty/4 x^2 = 32.5 Taking the sq. root of the two factors, x = sqrt(32.5)