Different Ways To Solve Equations

This week I am supposed to describe how to solve an equation such as 2X=16 in a way other than just dividing both sides by two.  The way you can do this is by finding a common factor between the two numbers.  In this case the common factor would be two. Then you have to see how many times the factor goes into the number on each side.  In 2X=16, two goes into 2 once, and into 16 twice so you simplify the equation to X=8 which is in simplest terms.  This method is called factoring.  So you can kind of think of the problem as a big fraction and once you get X by itself, the problem is in its simplest terms and you are done.  To me, this is not necessarily easier than just doing division, in fact they are pretty much the same.  This is just another way to think of the problem.