So for example:
5x + 3y = 7.
To isolate x, we do the following:
Subtract 3y from both sides:
5x + 3y - 3y = 7 - 3y
Which gives:
5x = 7 - 3y
Now we need to divide both sides by 5.
5x / 5 = (7 - 3y) / 5
x = (7 - 3y) / 5
We have now isolated x.
Here's a slightly harder one:
2x + 8 = x + 6y
To isolate for x, we need to get all x terms on one side:
So we subtract x from both sides:
2x + 8 - x = x + 6y - x
x + 8 = 6y
Now we need to get rid of the 8 on the left hand side of the equals sign:
x + 8 - 8 = 6y - 8
x = 6y - 8
