17=3(p-5)+8

Question

The class I'm doing this for is called coordinate algebra,

Answer 1

17=3(p-5)+8

You have 2 choices, and I will show you both ways of solving this. I would do it like this:

17=3(p-5)+8    Subtract the 8 over to the other side

9=3(p-5)    Divide both sides by 3

3=p-5    Add 5 over to the other side

8=p

The other way (which is sometimes better with certain numbers, but not in this case):

17=3(p-5)+8     Use the distributive property to multiply the 3 by each term in parentheses,

17=3p-15+8   Combine like terms

17=3p-7    Add 7 over to the other side

24=3p

8=p

In this case, that was probably more work.