How Do You Find Missing Values in Equations? Do you know what the bread and butter of mathematics is? Solving equations! Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing numbers are vital elements in solving questions, but the real job is to find the unknown in the equation, that too, with the given information in a question. Before we understand how to find the missing values in equations, lets first recall what equations are. Equation is defined as two expressions that are connected by an equals sign. The two sides are known are left and right sides of the equation. The most common type of equation is algebraic equations. Algebraic equations have variables, whose values are unknown, and we have to find. Whenever we are solving algebraic equations, the goal is to find the value of the variable, every time. And it is really not as tough as you think. All you have to do is carry all the known values towards the right side, remember that when you shift from left to right, the operations in algebra change, and the unknown value on the left side. Then all you have to do is follow the operations in the equation!

This is where students start to ponder algebra concepts for the first time. They can consider the missing value as the variable x. Your entire goal, in a problem like that, is to get x by itself. You can do this by adding and subtracting the same values from both sides. This serves as a great pre-algebra section. Many teachers always print these off first to get their kids started. These worksheets explain how to use the order of operations and balance equations to isolate a missing value within an equation and identify it. Make sure that each of the equations that you come across balance out on both sides.