Why is it important to simplify each side of an equation before solving it

Hector and alex traded video games. alex gave hector one fourth of his video games in exchange for 6 video games. then he sold 3 video games and gave 2 video games to his brother. alex ended up with 16 video games. how many video games did alex have when he started?

You can ride your bike around your block 6 times and the whole neighborhood 5 times in 16 minutes. you can ride your bike around your block 3 times and the whole neighborhood 10 times in 23 minutes. how long does it take you to ride around the neighborhood?

Sandy is upgrading her internet service. fast internet charges $20 for installation and $52.45 per month. quick internet has free installation but charges $57.45 per month. part 1 out of 2 complete the equation that can be used to find the number of months after which the internet service would cost the same. use the variable x to represent the number of months of internet service purchased.