What is the answer to 47 equals 2a plus 33?

Answer 1

47 = 2a + 33.

First of all let's re-order that for the sake of convenience to:

2a + 33 = 47 (this reads a little better)

Therefore

2a = 47 - 33

(we have moved the + 33 to the other side of the equals sign. When we do this, we have to change a positive number to a negative number and vice versa, so + 33 now becomes - 33; another way to think about it is that what we are actually doing is taking away 33 from both sides of the equation - if we take away 33 from one side we must also take it away from the other side to keep both sides equal to each other)

Therefore

2a = 14

(now we divide both sides of the equation by 2 so that we are left with just "a" on one side)

Therefore

a = 14/2

Therefore

a = 7.