This activity was developed by a student or students at Mainland High School which is located in Daytona Beach, FL. It is still a "work in progress" with editing and improvements yet to come.
Mathematical statements with one or more variables, or unknown numbers, are called open sentences.  An open sentence is neither true nor false until the variable has been replaced by a value.  Finding a replacement for the variable that results in a true sentence is called solving the open sentence.  This replacement is called a solution of the open sentence.

Replace b in 6b + 7 = 37 with the valves 3, 4, 5, and 6.
Then see whether each replace replacement results in a true or false sentence.

Replace b with:

6b + 7 = 37

True or False ?
3

6(3) + 7 =? 37 => 25 =/ 37

False
4 6(4) + 7 =? 37 => 31 =/ 37 False
5 6(5) + 7 =? 37 => 37 =  37 True
6 6(6) + 7 =? 37 => 43 =/ 37 False

Since b = 5 makes the sentence 6b + 7 = 37 true, the solution for 6b + 7 =37 is 5. 

A set of numbers from which replacements for a variable may be chosen is called a replacement set.  The set of all replacements for the variable in an open sentence that results in a true sentence is called the solution set for the sentence.

 

A sentence that contains an equals sign, "=", is called an equation and sometimes may be solved by simply applying the order of operations. A sentence having the symbols < or > is called an inequality.

 

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