For the particular problem raised in the introduction, assume that the total bill is $44. to answer the question "how should the bill be split? " we will create a linear equation. the unknown is how much money a single person (besides anika) must pay, so call that x. although four people (you plus three friends) went to dinner, only three are paying the unknown amount x for a total of 3x. since anika is paying $2, the total amount paid is 3x+2 dollars, which must equal the amount of the bill, $44. thus, the equation to find x is 3x+2=44. the steps for solving a linear equation are as follows: move all of the constants to the right side. move all of the variable terms (terms containing x) to the left side. divide both sides by the coefficient of the variable to isolate the variable. you will go through these steps one at a time to solve the equation and determine how much each person should pay.