Question

Which is a reasonable first step that can be used to solve the equation

Answer 1

Answer:

Use distributive property:

2x + 12 = 3x - 12 + 5

Step-by-step explanation:

This can allow for combining like terms later on, and eventually isolating x as a variable.

Answer 2

For this case we have the following equation:

$2 (x + 6) = 3 (x-4) +5$

The first step we must follow to solve the equation is to apply distributive property to the terms within the parenthesis:

$a (b + c) = ab + ac$

Then, the equation is:

$2x + 12 = 3x-12 + 5$

Answer:

The first step is to apply distributive property to the terms within parentheses.