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.
Steps to solve first-degree equations: 1  Combine like terms in each member of an equation. 2  Using the addition or subtraction property, write the equation with all terms containing the unknown in one member and all terms not containing the unknown in the other. 3  Combine like terms in each member.  Use the multiplication property to remove fractions.