Let’s examine this approach with the example
|3x – 7| = 5. First, take 3x to be a single unit and
Fig. 2 Points can be found c units from b.
Fig. 3 Here we move two units from –5.
Fig. 4 The distance from 3 must be greater than 4.
Vol. 104, No. 8 • April 2011 | Mathematics Teacher 595
think, “The distance from 3x to 7 is 5.” This step
leads to the representation shown in figure 5.