Imagine you have a mystery number, let's call it 'x', and someone is telling you that if you take away 3 from that number, you will get 7. We can solve this mystery using a simple game:
- Let's start with the number 'x'.
- Now, pretend that 'x' has three little friends. When we remove these three friends from 'x', we end up with a new number, which is -7.
- So, we write the equation as '-x - 3 = -7'. This is like a secret code that we need to crack to find out the value of 'x'.
- To solve the mystery, we need to imagine putting the three friends back with 'x' and figuring out what 'x' originally was.
- By carefully following the steps and using our detective skills, we can determine that 'x' is equal to -4. So, the mystery number we started with was -4!
Therefore, the solution to the equation '-x - 3 = -7' is 'x = -4'. This means that when you subtract 3 from -4, you will indeed get -7. Math can be like solving puzzles, and with practice, you can become a math detective too!