Question

What is the answer to 3|3x+4|-7=5?

Answer 1

Your first step is to add 7 to both sides. So you'd get 

3l3x+4l=12

Now that you have this, you want to get rid of that 3 that is being multiplied by l3x+4l. So divide both sides by 3

l3x+4l=4

Now, since this is an absolution value. the 2x+4 could be equal to 12 OR -12. The reason why it could be equal to negative 12 is because when you put a negative number into an absolute value, it automatically makes it positive. So 12 would end up to be 12, and -12 would ALSO end up being 12. So now, you have two equation

3x+4 = 4     AND    3x+4 = -4
3x=0                       3x=-8
x=0             AND     x=-8/3