Exercise 1 Page 94

We can use an equation model to solve 3x-7=-10. Let's do it step by step!

Step 1

We can begin with modeling the equation. On the left-hand side of the equation we have 3x-7, so we place 3 x-tiles and 7 negative 1-tiles on the left side of the mat. On the other side, we place 10 negative 1-tiles.

Step 2

Now we want to isolate the x-terms. Since there are 7 negative 1-tiles with the x-tiles on the left-hand side of the mat, we can add 7 positive 1-tiles to each side to form zero pairs.

Step 3

Now we can group the tiles to show the zero pairs. There are 7 of them on each side.

Now let's remove the zero pairs!

Step 4

Finally, we can group the remaining tiles into 3 equal groups to match the x-tiles.

We can see that each x-tile is paired with 1 negative 1-tile. Therefore, we can write the following equation. x=-1