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A pair of "Simultaneous equations" is two equations which are both true at the same time. You
have two equations which have two unknowns to be found.
Example
A man buys 3 fish and 2 chips for 2.80
A woman buys 1 fish and 4 chips for 2.60
How much are the fish and how much are the chips?
First we form the equations. Let fish be f and chips be c.
We know that:
3f + 2c = 280 (1)
f + 4c = 260 (2)
There are two methods of solving simultaneous equations. Use the method which you prefer:
Elimination
This involves changing the two equations so that one can be added/ subtracted from the other to
leave us with an equation with only one unknown (which we can solve). We can 'change' the
equations by multiplying them through by a constant- as long as we multiply both sides of the
equation by the same number it will remain true.
In our above example:
Doubling (1) gives:
6f + 4c = 560 (3)
Since equation (2) has a 4c in it, we can subtract this from the new equation (3) and the c's will
all have disappeared:
(3)-(2) gives 5f = 300
f = 60
Therefore the price of fish is 60p
So we can put f=60 in either of our original equations. Substitute this value into (1):
3(60) + 2c = 280
2c = 100
c = 50
Therefore the price of chips is 50p
Substitution
Using Graphs
You can solve simultaneous equations by drawing graphs of the two equations you wish to solve.
The x and y values of where the graphs intersect are the solutions to the equations.
Example
From the graph, y = 1 and x = 1.5 (approx.). These are the answers to the simultaneous
equations.