So in order to solve this we are going to cross multiply: a 4 --- = -- 15 5 so what were are going to do is we will take a and multiply it with 5 and we will take 15 and multiply it with 4. Now this gives us 5a and 60 so our new equation is: 5a = 60 now we are going to get our variable alone by dividing it by 5 and what we do on one side of the equation we do on the other: 5a = 60 ÷5 ÷5 this gives us a=12 hope this answer helps