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Exercises Numbers, fractions and percents

Example 5.42 from Prealgebra, 5.4 Solve Equations with Decimals

Solve Equations with Decimals: example 5.42

Solve: $a - 4.75 = −1.39 .$

Work it out on paper first. Then open the solution one step at a time, and stop as soon as you can finish on your own.

Solution
We will use the Addition Property of Equality.

Add 4.75 to each side, to undo the subtraction.

Simplify.

Check:

Since the result is a true statement, $a = 3.36$ is a solution to the equation.

Your turn

The book's Try It right after this example: same idea, new numbers. Only the answer is given.

Solve: $a - 3.93 = −2.86 .$

How did it go?

PreviousSolve Equations with Decimals: example 5.41 Next Solve Equations with Decimals: example 5.43

From Prealgebra (1st edition) by OpenStax (Rice University), section 5.4, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Original at openstax.org. We split the solution into steps; the words, numbers and figures are the book's. OpenStax doesn't endorse this site.