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# How to Solve Literal Equations?

TopIn mathematics, we use variables in an equation. But, when we replace these variables with literals, then this equation is known as literal equation. In literal equations, we write equations with many characters like the equation of Area which is A = $\frac{\pi r^2 S}{360}$, which uses A, r and S as literals. Now, we will discuss how to solve literal equations.

For solving literal equations, we have to use the following steps:
Step 1: First of all, we check the question for the type of literal. We solve literal equations as follows: A = b x h for ‘b’.

Step 2: Now, we solve this literal equation for that literal, which is given in the question by using the arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Here, arithmetic operations depends upon given literal equations. Here, we have to find out literal variable ‘b’ for literal equation A = b x h. Then, we use division operation.

$\frac{A}{h}$ = $\frac{b \times h}{h}$

$\frac{A}{h}$ = b

Now, let us take an example to understand how to solve literal equations.

Example:

Solve the literal equation ax + b = c for ‘x’.

Solution:

We use the following steps to solve the given literal equation.

Step 1: First of all, we check what kind of literal we have to find out. Here, we have to find out ‘x’.

Step 2: Now, we apply arithmetic operations on the given literal equation as follows:
ax + b = c
Subtracting ‘b’ from both the sides, we get
(ax + b) - b = c - b
ax = c - b.

Now, we divide both the side by ‘a’.

$\frac{ax}{a}$ = $\frac{c - b}{a}$

x = $\frac{c - b}{a}$