Solve the simultaneous equations: x + 3y = 26 and x - 3y = -22

You want to try and get rid of one of the letters from the equations. To do this you need to add a certain number of one equation into the other so that one of the letters cancel out. In the question above for example you can just add the two equations together. This will mean you will have x + x + 3y - 3y = 26 - 22. The y’s will cancel each other out so you are left with 2x = 4. From this you can divide both sides of the equation by 2 to get that x = 2. Now you can sub this value of x into one of the original equations to find the value of y. This gives you 2 + 3y = 26. From this you can rearrange to find that y = 8.