SOLUTION: Could you please help me with solving this system of equation using multiplication? I get how to solve problems with addition anbd subtraction just not multiplication. Thanks x+3y

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Question 137218: Could you please help me with solving this system of equation using multiplication? I get how to solve problems with addition anbd subtraction just not multiplication. Thanks
x+3y=-2
2x+y=6
Answer by vleith(2983) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
If you cando addition and subtraction, then you are just one step away from multiplication. In add/subtract case, at least one set of coefficients are the same. So you can add/sub without changing anything first.
Here, neither the x nor the y coefficients are the same. We need to make them the same and then add/sub.

Let's make the x coefficient the same. To do that, we can multiply the first equation by 2.
multiply this by 2 (need to do both sides)

Now you can use add/subtract.

subtract this one
---------------

Now solve or x and then check your answer.
make sense?
There is one more permutation of this type of problem. In this problem, we only had to multiply the first equation by 2 to get the x coefficients to be the same. You may have two equations where the coefficients are not multiples of each other. You may need to multiply one equation by one number and the second equation by a different number. For instance

In this case, multiply the first one by 7 and the second by 3 before you can add them.
Got it?