Page 1 of 1

help!

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 7:43 am
by doodle
Its been a while since I solved equations. Anyways, Im trying to help a neighbors kid with math and this problem came up which I got stuck on...I need to solve for n. If you could show the process to the answer that would be great.

18.5(10-n)/n=18.5

Re: help!

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 8:01 am
by SteveGo
Given:
18.5 (10-n) / n = 18.5

Divide both sides by 18.5:
(10-n) / n = 1

Multiply both sides by n:
(10-n) = n

Add n to both sides:
10 = n+n, or
10 = 2 * n

Divide both sides by 2:
5 = n

Re: help!

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 8:16 am
by doodle
Thanks!!

Re: help!

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 9:37 am
by dualstow
If your subject line had read "algebra", I would have looked sooner.
I got the same answer via a different route:

18.5(10-n)/n=18.5
(185-18.5)/n=18.5
185/n-18.5=18.5
185/n=18.5+18.5=37
n = 185/37 = 5

Re: help!

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 3:35 pm
by Gumby
You can literally copy and paste formulas like that into WolframAlpha:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=18 ... 2Fn%3D18.5

Re: help!

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 4:46 pm
by dualstow
Wow! I haven't visited that site in a very long time. Nice!

EDIT: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=wh ... y+money%3F