What is x if 17 equals x plus 51?

Answer 1

If x + 51 equals 17, then x must be negative. (If we are going to add 51 to some number and only get 17, an number less than 51, then we had to start at a negative number for this to happen.) Let's work through this one.

x + 51 = 17

x = 17 - 51 (we subtracted 51 from both sides of the equation)

x = -34 (we have arrived at the answer)