How to Solve Literal Equations in Physics

Physics is a fundamental science, and by studying the subject, mankind has learned diverse types of information, whether it's the structure of the universe or the interactions of electrons at the sub-atomic scale. Physics is a quantitative subject full of mathematics, particularly equations. It is important that physics students are able to manipulate and solve direct and literal algebraic equations to fully understand the subject and earn good grades.

Instructions

    • 1

      Write down the equation and problem. For example, the problem may involve Newton's second law and require you to solve F=ma for a.

      A literal equation is one you have to rearrange to solve. This is the case for F=ma, since F is currently the subject of the equation.

    • 2

      Rearrange the equation. Whatever you do to one side of the equals sign you have to do to the other side of the equals sign. Rearranging normally involves "cancelling" terms to leave just one term on a side. So, for F=ma, you have to solve for a. This means the result should be an equation of the form a=.

      In order to do this, you must cancel the multiplication of m. The opposite of multiplication is division, so divide both sides of the equation by m, which will give you F/m=a. You have solved the equation.

    • 3

      Plug in any numbers that were provided with the problem to finalize the result. In this example, if F=10, and m=2, the solution is a=10/2 = 5.

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