The sum of two numbers is -16. Three times the larger equals the smaller. How do you find the larger number?

Question

2731 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2017-01-05T08:49:22

The larger number is $-4$ .

Consider the numbers to be $x$ and $y$ with $x$ as the larger number. From the data, we can write:

$x+y=-16$
$3x=y$

From the second equation, we have a value for $y$ .

In the first equation, substitute $y$ with $color(red)(3x)$ .

$x+y=-16$

$x+color(red)3x=-16$

$4x=-16$

Divide both sides by $4$ .

$x=-4$

In the second equation, substitute $x$ with $color(blue)(-4)$ .

$3x=y$

$3(color(blue)-4)=y$

$-12=y$ or $y=-12$