In my post a couple of days ago, I wrote about how a formula can be changed to make another ‘part’ of it the subject. The subject is the element that stands alone and its easier to find a value if the value to be found is the subject

In this post I’ll give a couple of examples.

Most of the world now measures temperature on the Celsius scale, but in a few places, most noticeably perhaps the USA, how hot it is on a weather forecast will be given in degrees Fahrenheit .

There is a simple formula for turning a temperature on one scale into a temperature on the other.

F = 9C/5 + 32  – For example, the boiling point of water is 100 deg C.
F = 9 * 100/5 + 32  = 180 + 32 = 212  – and this is right, 212F is the boiling point of water on the Fahrenheit scale.

But what if we were in the USA, and seeing the weather forecast would like to know the temperature in the more familiar C scale.

We can rearrange the formula so this is  C = . To do this we follow steps familiar to you if you can solved equation. The rule that stays the same is you need to keep the balance – a change you make to one side of the = you make the same change to the other.

F = 9C/5 + 32

(Subtract 32 from both sides)

F – 32 = 9C/5

Multiply both sides by 5/9
C = 5(F-32)/9

You will see that I’ve also switched the sides round, and written the new right side using Brackets.  Its F-32 that needs to be multiplied by the factor 5/9 and we have to remember our BODMAS rules.

Lets try out the new formula.  If 77 degrees F is given as the temperature
C = (77-32) * 5/9  = 45 * 5/9 = 25C – which is a warm day by UK standards.

Now consider v = u + at – which is a formula of motion used at A-Level. Lets re-arrange this to make t the subject.

Take u from both sides (and switch)
at = v – u
t = (v – u)/a