Equations with Variables on Both Sides

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When solving equations with variables on both sides, we add an extra step to the beginning of the process. The very first thing we need to do is to get both of the variable terms to the same side of the equal sign.

We'll do this by moving the smallest variable term by adding or subtracting in from both sides. For example,

and we'll subtract 3x from both sides (since it's smaller than 8x)

Now we can solve this equation just like any other two-step equation.