Explore: Algebra Lab, Solving Equations
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Start with 9 positive 1-tiles on the right-hand side of the mat.
x=5
We can use an equation model to solve x+4=9. Let's solve it step by step!
On the left-hand side of the equation we have x+4. Let's start by placing 1 x-tile and 4 positive 1-tiles on that side of the mat. On the right-hand side we have 9, so we place 9 positive 1-tiles on the other side of the mat.
Now we want to isolate the x-term. We can do this by adding 4 negative 1-tiles to each side. This will form us 4 zero pairs on the left-hand side, which will isolate x. Let's do it!
We can see that we have 4 zero pairs on both the left- and right-hand sides. If we remove these pairs, we are left with the following mat.
We have successfully isolated x! From the remaining tiles on the mat we can see that x is equal to 5. x=5 This is the solution of our equation!