Process
One step equations involve an unknown (a variable) that is usually represented by a lower case letter such as x and an equality.
For example: x + 5 = 10.
To be able to solve a one-step equation, we need to isolate x, which means x has to one one side of the equation alone. For this we use inverse operations, which are two operations that undo each other. For example addition is inverse of subtraction and vice versa. So in our example the operation we have is addition, and the inverse of addition is subtraction. Therefore, in order to undo (x +5) we subtract 5 from (x + 5). However, to be able to preserve the equality, we must subtract 5 from the other side of it. Subtracting the same number from each side of an equation produces an equivalent equation, which are equations that have the same solution. As a result, by using the subtraction property we get
x + 5 - 5 = 10 - 5
which is an equivalent equation of
x + 5 = 10
that is to say they have the same solution. However, when we collect like terms and clean out our equation, we get x = 5. Here x is isolated and we can clearly can see the solution.
For further info and exercises:
SOLVING ONE STEP EQUATIONS VIDEO CLIP
MATH DUDE VIDEO
ONE STEP EQUATION GAME
EQUATION BUSTER
For your project:
- You will copy all the temperatures given in the weather report in to first column of your table.
- You will convert all the temperatures in the forecast given in Fahrenheit to Celsius scale and put in the second column against the corresponding temperature given in Fahrenheit scale.
- You will convert all the temperatures in the forecast given in Fahrenheit to Kelvin scale and put in the second column against the corresponding temperature given in Fahrenheit scale. How else could you go about in terms of calculating conversions in this step?
Further exploration questions:
1) What if your European friend wanted to convert Celsius scale to Kelvin scale for your scientist friend? What equations would she use?