what is the answer for this math problem?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwread/8195830525/

my guess is that your problem looks like this:

(3/5)x +(5/3) = -23/240

and that you're solving for x.

First of all, in order to solve for x you must first isolate x on one side, whether it be left or right side. In an attempt to keep x as a positive number and avoid negative sign confusion, we'll keep the x term on the left side. We can now isolate x by subtracting (5/3) from both sides, because what you do to one side you must also do to the other to keep the equality.

So by subtracting both sides by (5/3), you arrive at:

(3/5)x = -23/240 - (5/3)

but 5/3 is just 400/240, so:

(3/5)x = -23/240 - 400/240 = -423/240

Now to isolate x we must cancel out (3/5), we can do this by multiplying the reciprocal (5/3) on both sides, and we get this:

x = -423/240 x (5/3)

and x = -2115/720

this can be simplified to -423/144