Originally Posted by Lneal
Has anyone heard of the term "jumping the shark"? We learned about it today in adult ed class. It's used when solving equation problems. Do they make these rules up as they go or is this another thing to confuse my mind? :lol:
This is the problem: 5 = 51 - a
Help :idea:
LOL, I think "jumping the shark" is a currently trendy term. The meaning I learned for it was the point where a TV show has gone past its point of top popularity and is now on a downswing. Never heard it applied to math, so I don't know what your teacher means.
If I had to guess, I'd say it's a method of bringing numbers and variables to the other side of the equal sign in order to solve the equation. Moving a negative to the other side of the equal sign makes it positive (and vice versa). Moving a divided number over means you multiply it. If it's a fraction, you flip it.
5 = 51 - a rearranges to:
a = 51 - 5, which is a = 46
17 = 22 - u becomes u = 22 - 17 or u = 5
Now, my answer looks completely different from
barnbum's, so now
I'm confused!