Question

During two years in college, a student earned $21,600. The second year she earned $400 more thanthree times the amount she earned the first year. How much did she earn the first year?Write two linear equations to represent a system to solve this, where a represents the student'searnings the first year and y represents the student's earnings the second year. Write the equations,but do not solve them.1)2)

Answer 1

In the first part of the problem, you are given that the sum of the earnings is equal to $21,600, therefore, you can set the equation:

`a+y=21600.`

Where a represents the student's earnings of the first year and y represents the earnings of the second year.

In the second part of the problem, you are given that y is 3 times a plus $400, therefore, you can set the following equation:

`y=3a+400.`

Answer:

`\begin{gathered} a+y=21600, \\ y=3a+400. \end{gathered}`