Question:
I don't understand how to solve these multiple step problems. I wasn't there when my teacher explained it and I am really lost. Here is one of the probs I don't understand: 3m+6=-m-6. Could you please reply asap? Thanks

Hi Maria,

You have the equation

and you want to "solve for m". That is you want an equation that is equivalent to

but which has the form

I am going to call this equation the target equation.
   One feature I see in the target equation that is not true of your original equation is that the letter m only appears on the left of the equal sign. To "remove" m from the right side of the original equation I add m to both sides to get

On the left side 3m + m = 4m and on the right side -m + m = 0 and thus this equation simplifies to

This equation is equivalent to the original equation since I obtained it from the original equation by adding the same amount (m) to both sides.
   I now want to "remove" the 6 from the left side of the equation and I do this by adding -6 to both sides of the equation to get

which simplifies to

All that remains now is to "remove" the 4 from the left side while maintaining the equality of the two sides. This I do by dividing both sides by 4 to get

or

I hope this helps,
Penny