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#51 2012-07-04 12:16:23
- cmowla
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- Registered: 2012-06-14
- Posts: 70
Re: Solving Equations using the elimination method. Help!
Perhaps if you see it this way, it might make sense to you (it helped me when I taught myself this way).
I'll show the solution to the first problem.
Note that it really helps if you make an effort to line up the equal signs when you write one equation on top of the other. Also, keep x and y terms and the number term lined up too (a term means something you add or subtract. For example, in the equation A + B + C = D, A, B, C, and D are terms).
Two main points about doing this process.
1) Whatever you do to one side (or even just one thing that you add or subtract with the rest), you must do to the rest, otherwise you change that equation.
2) The main idea is to end up adding
, where A is some number (or fraction) OR . So you only need to change one of the two equations, not both. You can, but if you're comfortable working with fractions, then you'll only have to change one for any numbers involved.Also, I use the
symbol which just means "implies that the following is true". Usually people just put equal signs in between lines of work, but sometimes everything isn't equal! So that's why I use that instead of an equal sign.So for two equations with two variables, there are 4 (easy) ways we can find the first variable and two ways we can find the second variable.
Last edited by cmowla (2012-07-04 12:29:49)
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#52 2012-07-04 12:20:48
- anonimnystefy
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- From: Harlan's World
- Registered: 2011-05-23
- Posts: 16,049
Re: Solving Equations using the elimination method. Help!
Very nice explanation, cmowla!
Here lies the reader who will never open this book. He is forever dead.
Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
The knowledge of some things as a function of age is a delta function.
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#53 2012-07-04 12:27:26
- cmowla
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- Registered: 2012-06-14
- Posts: 70
Re: Solving Equations using the elimination method. Help!
Very nice explanation, cmowla!
Thanks! I hope this helps SlowlyFading. The Elimination method intimidated me at first, but once I did it this way, it became pretty simple.
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#54 2012-07-05 08:37:22
- SlowlyFading
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- Registered: 2012-06-12
- Posts: 149
Re: Solving Equations using the elimination method. Help!
Thank you cmowla your explanation with quite helpful!
I'm just here to get some help with an online math course I'm taking.
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