SOLUTION: 13. Social science. In a town election, the winning candidate had 220 more votes than the loser. If 810 votes were cast in all, how many votes did each candidate receive?

Algebra.Com
Question 123629: 13. Social science. In a town election, the winning candidate had 220 more votes than the loser. If 810 votes were cast in all, how many votes did each candidate receive?
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let x= # of votes for winning candidate, y=# of votes for losing candidate


Because, there were 810 votes in all, this means that the sum of the votes is 810. So the first equation is



Also, since "the winning candidate had 220 more votes than the loser", this means the second equation is

So we have the system






Plug in into the first equation. In other words, replace each with . Notice we've eliminated the variables. So we now have a simple equation with one unknown.



Combine like terms on the left side


Subtract 220 from both sides


Combine like terms on the right side


Divide both sides by 2 to isolate y



Divide




Now that we know that , we can plug this into to find



Substitute for each


Simplify


Answer:

So our answer is and which means that the winning candidate had 515 votes and the losing candidate had 295 votes

RELATED QUESTIONS

Solve the following problems.show the equation used for the solution. Social science. (answered by ptaylor)
Social Science. Show the equation used for the solution. In a town election, the... (answered by jim_thompson5910)
Social science. In a town election, the winning candidate had 220 more votes than the... (answered by checkley71)
Social science. In a town election, the winning candidate had 220 more votes than the... (answered by fractalier)
Social Science: In a town election, the winning candidate had 220 more votes than the... (answered by ptaylor)
56. Social science. In a town election, the winning candidate had 220 more votes than the (answered by erimir)
56) Social science. In a town election, the winning candidate had 220 more votes than... (answered by checkley75)
Social science. In a town election, the winning candidate had 220 more votes than the... (answered by scott8148)
Social science. In a town election, the winning candidate had 220 more votes than the... (answered by SHUgrad05)