How do you do 5x-10y equals 3?

Answer 1

If we read between the line, we're left with the nagging suspicion that

you're not quite sure exactly what you want to 'do' to it.

First of all, there's no question in it, so there's no answer to find. The only

thing that needs 'doing' is whatever your teacher assigned you to do to it,

just to get some practice in algebraic manipulations of expressions.

We can think of two things that you might be asked to 'do' to this expression:

5x - 10y = 3

1). 'Solve' the expression for 'x':

Add 10y to each side ==> 5x = 3 + 10y

Divide each side by 5 ==> x = 0.6 + 2y

or

2). 'Solve' it for 'y':

Add 10y to each side ==> 5x = 3 + 10y

Subtract 3 from each side ==> 5x - 3 = 10y

Divide each side by 10 ==> 0.5x - 0.6 = y

Neither of these operations changes anything, and neither of them answers anything

because the expression doesn't ask anything. They're both just different ways of

writing the same thing.