How many feet are there in a mile?

to solve for a variable means to isolate the variable on one side of the equation.

note: we can write (1/2)(bh) as one fraction like this (bh/2). they mean the same thing.

we now have this:

a = (bh/2)

we multiply both sides of the fractional equation by 2. this is done to remove the fraction.

doing this we now have a linear equation:

2a = bh

we now divide both sides of the equation by h to find the value of b.

final answer:

(2a/h) = b