How do you solve y = 5x - 10 and y = 3x + 8 using substitution?

1 Answer
Feb 5, 2017

(x,y)=(9,35)
(see below for methodology)

Explanation:

Given
[1]color(white)("XXX")y=5x-10
[2]color(white)("XXX")y=3x+8

Using [1] we can substitute 5x-10 for y in [2]
[3]color(white)("XXX")5x-10=3x+8

Simplifying:
[4]color(white)("XXX")2x=18

[5]color(white)("XXX")x=9

We can now use [5] to substitute 9 for x in [1]
[6]color(white)("XXX")y=5 * (9)-10

Simplifying
[7]color(white)("XXX")y=35

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We could (and should) verify this result by substituting
x=9 and y=35 in [2]
color(white)("XXX")35 = 3 * (9) + 8 (correct)