Given the two equations [1](3x + 4y = 23) and [2](2x + 3y = 16), find the values of x and y

One way to find the values of x and y is to substitute the value of x into one of the equations. To sub in x we need to rearrange an equation to get x on its own. We can change the second equation to x = (16 - 3y)/2. We then sub this into equation 1 and get3[(16 - 3y)/2] + 4y = 23. Expanding this out gets 24 - (9/2)y + 4y = 23. -(9/2)y + 4y = -1 -1/2y = - 1 -y = -2 y = 2. This can then be substituted back into an equaiton to get x. Subbing back into equation 1 gets 3x + 8 = 23. 3x = 15 x = 5This can then be verified by subbing in our values back into equation 2 to check that our answers are correct.

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Answered by Stephen H. Maths tutor

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