Adding and Subtracting Variables Examples

What's the solution to the equation -x – 2 = -2x + 1?

We wanna get one x all by itself on one side of the equation. If we add x to both sides, we find that:

-x – 2 + x = -2x + 1 + x
-2 = -x + 1

Since we'd like to get a positive x on one side of the equation—we made a New Year's resolution to be more upbeat—we add another x to both sides:

-2 + x = -x + 1 + x
-2 + x = 1

All that's left is to add 2 to each side:

-2 + x + 2 = 1 + 2
x = 3

We also could've added 2x to each side from the start: