the sum of two number is 18 and the difference is 4, find the numbers
Answers
Answer:
11 + 7 = 18
11 - 7 = 4
Step-by-step explanation:
The sum means to add two numbers so we can write : x + y = 18
Then, their difference is 4 which can be written : x - y = 4
The best way to determine this is to set one of the variables on one side of an equation to use in the second equation. This takes a bit of algebra.
x + y = 18 can be rearranged to x = 18 - y OR y = 18 - x : either of these gives you an equation to plug in to the second equation to find one of the variables.
x - y = 4 , from the equation we rearranged before, y = 18-x so we can plug this equation in for y
x - (18-x) = 4
Now we only have x to solve for :
x-18 +x = 4 (the second x becomes a plus because of the negative on the outside of the parenthesis.
then if we add18 on both sides:
x +x = 4 +18
simplify : 2x = 22
x = 11
Then we plug 11 into the previous equations we started with:
x + y = 18 -----> 11 + y =18 -------> y = 7
x - y = 4 --------> does 11-7 = 4? Yes! So we found out that x = 11 and y = 7