How do I solve for x in the following problem? 32=1/2(x+35)?

Question

I know this is simple, but I'm getting a brain freeze.  This is an example in the textbook but they didn't explain why I would solve it by the followiing steps:

32= 1/2 (x+35)

64 = x+35 --this is the step I don't understand

x = 29

Answer 1

if you use the distributive property on the right side, you would end up with 1/2x and 17.5....this just makes the equation more difficult.  So, they have multiplied the entire equation by 2.  This way, when you use the dist. property, you get  x and 35.  it looks confusing because they skipped this step.... 2(32)=2(1/2x+17.5)