How do you do problems such as -1450-8x equals -1994?

Answer 1

I don't know you meant the ugly and large numbers, or linear single variable equations. For the former, you just need patience, practice and either a mad brain I don't have or a calculator which I do have.

For the latter, there is a way to do it. For any Linear equation, we can always simplify it to this form:

a + bx = 0 where b is NOT 0. (if it is, then a must be 0, or you've goofed somewhere and yes, it's a 0 on the right hand side RHS)

Then, bx = -a, x = -a/b

Of course that's the easy part, the hard part is to put it into a + bx = 0 form

This, I can't really give you a generic case, only that use addition and subtraction to move everything to one side. Multiplication if necessary. If you are using division somewhere, you might not be working with a linear equation.