Question

Holland added three decimals that made a sum of 2. One of the decimals was 0.34. What are two other decimals Holland could have used to make a sum of 2

Answer 1

In general the two other decimals are x and y that satisfy x + y = 1.66 where x ≤ .99 and y ≤ .99

One particular pair would be x = 0.99 and y = 0.67

Explanation:

If Holland added three decimals that made a sum of 2 and one of them was 0.34, we are going to name x and y to the other 2 decimals.

We are going to write the equation:

`0.34 + x +y= 2\\x+y=2-0.34\\x+y = 1.66`

So we have that both the other numbers have to sum 1.66, however, we know both numbers are decimals so neither one of them can be greater than 1.

So this problem has many answers and the answers would be all the numbers that satisfy x + y = 1.66 where x ≤ .99 and y ≤ .99

• For example, if x = 0.99, y would be:

y = 1.66 -0.99 = 0.67.

And our pair of numbers would be 0.99 and 0.67.

• If x = .80, y would be

y = 1.66 - 0.80 = 0.86

And our pair of numbers would be 0.80 and 0.86

This way, we can find more than 1 answer for the other two decimals.

Answer 2

Using x to represent our missing values and the fact that there are two missing values gives us x + x = 2x. Because it's the sum of these numbers and 0.34, we get the equation 2x + 0.34; now we set it equal to 2, 2x + 0.34 = 2.

To solve, 1st subtract 0.34 on both sides to get 2x = 1.66. Now divide by 2 on both sides to get x = 0.83.

So your decimals are 0.34, 0.83, and 0.83