Question

What two numbers have a product of -52 and a sum of 9, what are the 2 numbers?

Answer 1

I know the x and y are 5 and 11 but I wanted to see if I could algebraically solve it, and found I couldn't.

In x+y=16, I know x=16/y but when I plug it back in I get something like 16/y+y=16, then I multiply the left side by 16 to get 2y=256 and then ultimately y=128. Am I doing something wrong?

Explanation:

i don't have an answer to your specific request, but this example can help you fortunatly i was doing a problem about that type of question.

Answer 2

-4 and 13.

Explanation:

I found this by finding the factors of 52- 1, 2, 4, 13, 26, and 52. You can then look at those and see how they interact. I knew that you had to multiply with a negative to get a negative product and that you can't get 9 by adding any two of those factors, so I started seeing how I could subtract to make 9. Once I found that I could take 4 from 13 and get 9 I checked the multiplication for -4 * 13 and it all worked out.