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15 votes
15 votes
What is the solution to the following system of equations?
x - y = 4
y = x - 4

User Alex Karnezis
by
3.2k points

1 Answer

20 votes
20 votes

Answer:

infinite number of solutions

Explanation:

we can use the substitution method because the second equation is already solved for 'y'

we can substitute 'x-4' for the 'y' in the first equation to get:

x - (x-4) = 4

x-x+4 = 4

x-x = 0

what 'x-x=0' indicates is that there are an infinite number of values that would be solutions

Check:

if we solve the first equation for 'y' we get:

-y = -x + 4

divide all terms by -1 to get:

y = x - 4 which matches the other equation which means this two equations are equal and will create only one line

User CeZet
by
3.1k points