How do you solve the equation '2x + 1 = 5'?

The objective for this question is to work out what number 'x' represents in order for this equation to be true. This simply means that we want to find the number that 'x' equals, so we have x = ? We must start by rearranging the equation 2x + 1 = 5. In other words, we would like to have just 'x' on one side of the equation and a number on the other. In our equation that means that we would like to get rid of the term '+1' from the left-hand side. To do this, we must use the opposite operation to '+' which is '-'. So to remove the '+1' from the left hand side we must subtract 1. Because we are doing that to the left hand hand side of the equation, in order for the equation to remain the same as the one in the question, we must perform the same subtraction to both sides of the equation. This gives us, 2x + 1 - 1 = 5 - 1. If we compute these subtractions we get, 2x = 4. So we have all the 'x' terms on the same side of the equation!Now, to get 'x' on its own, we must get rid of the '2' in front of the 'x'. As 2x means 2 multiplied by x, we must perform the opposite operation, which is to divide by 2. Again, this must be done to both sides of the equation, 2 × x ÷ 2 = 4 ÷ 2 which, when worked out, gives us, x = 2 and the question is answered!