One step equations

I'm working on this y + 5=-12 answer says y=-17 I did 12-5 which equaled 7. Your answer says 17,do I carry the 1 down to make it 17? to get the answer -17?

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Karin from Algebra Class says:

Thank you for asking this great question! No, we don't carry a one. Take a look:

y+5 = -12

First we will remove the 5 from the left hand side by subtracting 5 from both sides.

y + 5 - 5 = -12 - 5

Now we are left with:

y = -12 - 5

Now, if this problem were 12 - 5, your answer of 7 would be correct. However, the problem is
-12 - 5.

So, we can rewrite -12 - 5 as -12 + (-5) because subtraction is the same as adding the opposite.

-12 + (-5) = -17 since we are adding two negative numbers, our answer is negative.

So, we got our answer of -17, by computing
-12 - 5, which is -17.

y = -17

Your only mistake is a computation error involving integers. You may want to go back and review all of the integer rules in the basic algebra section:

https://www.algebra-class.com/subtracting-integers.html

Thanks for submitting your question.

Best of luck to you!

Karin

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