Expert: Richard J. Raridon - 10/9/2009

Question
im trying to help my niece with her homework, and i forgot how to do these fractions.    1/2x + 1/3x = 1/6x -5.  I got as far as 5/6x 1/6x-5. what is the next step.  i know that you have to get the x by itself.

Answer
First of all, it should be written (1/2)x + (1/3)x = (1/6)x -5 to avoid confusion, since
1/2x could be interpreted as 1/(2x).  
So you got (5/6)x = (1/6)x -5
subtract (1/6)x from each side to get (4/6)x = -5
multiply each side by 6/4 and you get x = -30/4 or -15/2