Question #ade54

1 Answer
Jun 1, 2017

Answer: 13 and 8

Explanation:

The sum of 2 numbers is 21 and their difference is 5. Can you find the numbers?

We can write a system of equations, let x and y be the two numbers. Since it is given that difference between x and y is not zero, we can assume that one must be greater than the other, say x>y:
x+y=21
x-y=5

Now, we solve the system by elimination. We can add the equations together to eliminate the y variable and solve for x:
x+y+x-y=21+5
2x=26
x=13

Now, we can substitute back into either of the equations to find y, we will use x-y=5:
13-y=5

Adding y to both sides and subtracting 5 from both sides, we get:
y=8

Therefore, the two numbers are 13 and 8