Question

The governor of state A earns $48,430 more than the governor of state B . If the total of their salaries is $279,100, find the salaries of each

Answer 1

For the first part, we can write

`B+48430=A`

where A is the salary for governor A and B is the salary for governor B.

From the second part, we can write

`A+B=279100`

Then, we have 2 equations in 2 unknows.

Solving by substitution method.

If we substitute the firs equation into the second one ,we get

`(B+48430)+B=279100`

which gives

`2B+48430=279100`

If we move 48430 to the right hand side as -48430, we have

`\begin{gathered} 2B=279100-48430 \\ 2B=230670 \end{gathered}`

then, B is equal to

`\begin{gathered} B=(230670)/(2) \\ B=115335 \end{gathered}`

Finally, by substituting this result into our first equation, we obtain

`\begin{gathered} A+115335=279100 \\ A=279100-115335 \\ A=163765 \end{gathered}`

This means that governo A earns $163,765 and gobernor B earns $115,335