How do solve the following linear system?: -7x+y=-19 , -2x+3y=-1 ?

1 Answer
Feb 27, 2017

(x,y)=(56/19,31/19)

Explanation:

{(-7x+y=-19),(-2x+3y=-1):}

Notice that the single variable y is easily isolated in the first equation.

Taking the first equation -7x+y=-19, we can rewrite this by adding 7x to both sides to see that

color(blue)(y=7x-19)

We now have an expression equal to y completely in terms of x. We can then take the equation we haven't used yet and replace y with 7x-19, since for this system we know these are equivalent expressions.

-2x+3color(blue)y=-1" "=>" "-2x+3color(blue)((7x-19))=-1

We can now solve this equation, since it's entirely in terms of x. Distributing the 3 into the parentheses gives

-2x+(21x-57)=-1

Combining the x terms then adding 57 to both sides gives

19x-57=-1

19x=56

Then

color(red)(x=56/19

Now we can plug this into either equation to find the value of y:

-2color(red)x+3y=-1

-2color(red)((56/19))+3y=-1

-112/19+3y=-1

Multiplying everything by 19 yields

-112+57y=-19

So

57y=93

y=93/57

Both of these are divisible by 3:

y=(31xx3)/(19xx3)

color(green)(y=31/19)

So the solution is the point (color(red)x,color(green)y)=(color(red)(56/19),color(green)(31/19)).

" "

The graphs of the the lines -7x+y=-19 and -2x+3y=-1 should intersect at the point (56/19,31/19)approx(2.95,1.63):

graph{(-7x+y+19)(-2x+3y+1)=0 [-10.61, 17.87, -4.8, 9.44]}

They do!