How will this information give us the solution? Let us look again at two equations, this time in the forms y = ax + b and x = c. (In these forms, the letters a, b, and c refer to generalized constants; not to particular values). In the first equation, the value of y is given purely as an expression that includes x, and does not require further manipulation. Since the second equation gives us the explicit value for x, the value for y equal to the expression ax + b is no longer unknown. It is found instead by simply applying the known x-value and performing the arithmetic. Let us see some examples where the constants a, b, and c represent various rational numbers in decimal form