The word for the punctuation mark, on the other hand, comes from Îºá¿¶Î»Î¿Î½ (or kÅlon), which means âlimbâ or âclauseâ â and it is used because one of the main functions of the colon is to separate two clauses, where the second clause explains or follows from the first.
The goal in solving an equation is to get the variable by itself on one side of the equation and a number on the other side of the equation. To isolate the variable, we must reverse the operations acting on the variable. We do this by performing the inverse of each operation on both sides of the equation.
There are two basic methods we will use to solve systems of linear. equations: â¢ Substitution. â¢ Elimination. We will describe each for a system of two equations in two unknowns, but each works for systems with more equations and more unknowns. So assume we have a system of the form: ax+by = c. dx+ey = f. Substitution. To use substitution, we solve for one of the variables in one of the. equations in terms of the other variable and substitute that value in. the other equation. That gives us a single equation in one variable, which we may solve. and then substitute that solution into either original equation or, even.