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3 votes
Are there any values of x and y for which x + y is equal to x - y

1 Answer

4 votes

You can choose any value for
x, while you must choose
y=0.

Intuitively, this makes sense since
x+y=x-y means that you want to start from number
x, and you want to obtain the same result by moving left or right by
y units. This can't happen, unless you don't move at all, i.e.
y=0.

If you want to be more formal, you have


x+y = x-y \implies x-x = -y-y \implies -2y=0 \iff y = 0

while
x was canceled, so it can assume any value.

User Rajan
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