What value of x satisfies the equation x + 34 - x - 16 = 2?

SAT Linear equations in one variable Practice Question 16 (Hard)

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Question bank / Linear equations in one variable

Math · AlgebraHard

What value of $x$ satisfies the equation $\frac{x + 3}{4} - \frac{x - 1}{6} = 2$ ?

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Answer: 13

Multiply every term by 12: $3(x + 3) - 2(x - 1) = 24$ . Distribute: $3x + 9 - 2x + 2 = 24$ . Combine: $x + 11 = 24$ , so $x = 13$ .

Distributing the $-2$ as $-2x - 2$ instead of $-2x + 2$ gives the incorrect value 17.

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