Question

Together 2 people earn $28000. One earned $2000 more than the other. How much is the smaller income?

Answer 1

Let x be the smaller income and y be the bigger income.

So, if both earn together $28,000, then:

`x+y=28000`

If one earns $2000 more than the other, we can say the the bigger minus the smaller is equal to 2000, that is:

`y-x=2000`

Now, we can solve the second equation for y and input it into the first equation:

`\begin{gathered} y-x=2000 \\ y=x+2000 \end{gathered}`
`\begin{gathered} x+y=28000 \\ x+x+2000=28000 \\ 2x=28000-2000 \\ 2x=26000 \\ x=(26000)/(2) \\ x=13000 \end{gathered}`

Thus, the smalle income is $13,000, alternative D.