The sum of 2 numbers is 15 and the difference is 7 what is the answer?

Answer 1

Hi Mikaila,

You can create 2 equations with 2 unknowns and solve them using elimination to find these numbers.

Let's use the variable, x, to represent one of the numbers and the variable, y , to represent the other.

Then we can write the following equations to represent the info in the problem:

x + y = 15

x - y =7

If we use elimination, we can find the value of x:

x + y = 15

x - y =7

2x = 22

x = 11

If x = 11, y will be 4 because 11 + 4 = 15.

Also, 11 - 4 = 7.