Video Transcript
Answer the following questions using the given diagram. Firstly, form an equation that will allow you to calculate ๐ฅ. Secondly, find the value of ๐ฅ.
So within this question, weโve been given a diagram. And by looking at the diagram, we can see that two of the angles have been labelled in terms of this variable ๐ฅ. We need to use some angle facts in order to first form an equation and then solve our equation in order to find the value of ๐ฅ.
The diagram consists of a pair of straight lines, which intersect. And by looking at the diagram, we can see that the two angles that have been labelled are a particular type of angles that was referred to as vertically opposite angles. These are the pair of angles opposite one another when a pair of straight lines intersect.
There is also another pair of vertically opposite angles in the diagram, the pair of angles that Iโve marked in green. However, weโre interested in the pair of angles marked in blue, and also now in orange.
In order to answer this question, we need to remember a key fact about vertically opposite angles, which is that vertically opposite angles are equal to each other. So this gives us an idea for how to answer the first part of the question: form an equation that will allow you to calculate ๐ฅ.
Well, if vertically opposite angles are equal to each other, then these two expressions for the angles must also be equal to each other. So we have that 15๐ฅ plus 50 is equal to five ๐ฅ plus 60. And there is our unsimplified equation that we can use in order to calculate ๐ฅ.
So weโve answered the first part of the question, and now we need to go on and answer the second part of the question, which asked us to find the value of ๐ฅ, or, in other words, solve this equation. So the problem is now an algebraic one, where weโre looking to solve this linear equation.
So looking at the equation, I can see that there are currently ๐ฅ terms on both sides of the equation, and Iโd like to collect all the ๐ฅ terms on the same side, the left-hand side. So my first step towards solving this equation is just subtract five ๐ฅ from both sides. So when I subtract five ๐ฅ from the left-hand side, Iโm left with 10๐ฅ plus 50, and when I subtract five ๐ฅ from the right-hand side, Iโm just left with 60.
Next, I want to have the ๐ฅ terms on their own, so I need to subtract 50 from both sides of the equation. And having done so, I now have that 10๐ฅ is equal to 10. The final step in order to find the value of ๐ฅ is that I need to divide both sides of this equation by 10, as I want to go from 10๐ฅ to one ๐ฅ. So dividing both sides of the equation by 10 gives me that ๐ฅ is equal to one.
So to answer this question, we had to recall a key angles fact, which is that vertically opposite angles are equal to one another. Once weโd recalled this fact, we were able to set up our equation to answer the first part of the question: 15๐ฅ plus 50 is equal to five ๐ฅ plus 60. We were then able to solve this linear equation using our algebraic methods to give us the value of ๐ฅ: ๐ฅ is equal to one.
