The word for the punctuation mark, on the other hand, comes from Îºá¿¶Î»Î¿Î½ (or kÅlon), which means âlimbâ or âclauseâ â and it is used because one of the main functions of the colon is to separate two clauses, where the second clause explains or follows from the first.
The goal in solving an equation is to get the variable by itself on one side of the equation and a number on the other side of the equation. To isolate the variable, we must reverse the operations acting on the variable. We do this by performing the inverse of each operation on both sides of the equation.
Solving Inequalities Using Inverse Operations. page 1 of 2. We can solve inequalities using inverse operations in the same way we solve equations using inverse operations with one exception: we have to pay attention to the rules governing multiplication and division by a negative number and reciprocals, and flip the inequality sign when appropriate.