Solve the linear equation 17x = -85 for x.

Answer – On solving the linear equation $17 x = - 85$ , we get $x = 5$ .

Explanation:

An equation that can be expressed in the form $a x + b = 0$ , where x is a variable and a and b are real numbers, is called a linear equation. Further, $a x + b = 0$ is called the standard form of a linear equation.

Solving linear equations is easy if we keep these steps in mind:

Simplify both the left and right sides of the equation as much as possible.
Ensure that all variables are on one side and all numbers are on the other side of the equation.
Solve for just one variable if there are two or more.

Let’s now come to the given equation $17 x = - 85$ .

We begin by checking if the left and right sides of the equation can be simplified further. Since they cannot, we go to the next step, which is to ensure that numbers and variables are on the opposite sides of the equation.

For just the variable x to appear on the left side of the equation, we need to eliminate 17.

And since 17 is multiplied by x, we need to perform the inverse operation of multiplication, which is division. So we simply divide both sides by 17 and we get the value of x:

$17 x = - 85$

$\div 17 \div 17$

$x = - 5$

Thus, $x = - 5$ in the equation $17 x = - 85$ .

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Answer – On solving the linear equation 17x= –85, we get x = 5.

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Answer – On solving the linear equation $17 x = - 85$ , we get $x = 5$ .