Because there is a negative sign in front of the parentheses, you have to make all the signs in the parentheses the opposite: -18 - 4x = 8 Then you can add -4x to the other side to make it positive and then subtract 8 to the other side to work on getting x all by itself. -18 - 8 = 4x Then add your two negatives (because you add negatives when you have two of them because you are kind of making the answer more negative in a way :/ ) to get -26: -26 = 4x Then divide by 4 to simplify and get x all by itself which leaves you with: -6.5 = x (because when you divide a negative by a positive the quotient is negative) Check your answer by substituting -6.5 in for x in the original equation: -[18 + 4(-6.5)] = 8 Multiply 4 times -6.5 (because you always start with the innermost parentheses) to get -26: -(18 - 26) = 8 Change the signs because of the negative in the front: -18 + 26 = 8 Subtract -18 from 26 to get 8 8 = 8 Correct! So your answer is x = -6.5!
