document.write( "Question 227000: the sum of two numbers is 72. one number is 3 more than the two times of the other number. find the numbers. \n" ); document.write( "

Algebra.Com's Answer #168816 by lilmama50(7) $\"\"$ $\"About$

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The two numbers are 37.5 and 34.5.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "First set up the equations needed to solve the problem. In this case there are two numbers needing to be figured out which I will call them a and b. So it is stated that the sum of these two numbers is 72. Therefore $\"a%2Bb=72\"$ That is the first equation needed. Now, it says the first number (a) is 3 more than twice the second number (b)... which makes this equation... $\"a=2b%2B3\"$ \r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Now you just have to substitute the a in the first equation with its value from the second equation... since a equals 2b+3 it would look like this: $\"%282b%2B3%29=72\"$ So begin by subtracting 3 from both sides. Which gives this: $\"2b=69\"$ Now divide both sides by 2 which gives: $\"b=34.5\"$ \r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Now plug that value of b into the equation $\"a%2Bb=72\"$ giving you $\"a%2B34.5=72\"$ ... subtract 34.5 from both sides and the result is $\"a=37.5\"$ because 72 - 34.5 is 37.5 and thus you have your two numbers of 34.5 and 37.5 which the sum of the two does indeed equal 72. \n" ); document.write( "

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