Question 38266: The difference of two numbers is 45. The second is 3 less than 3 times the first. What are the two numbers? Answer by fractalier(6550) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Let's call our two numbers x and y. From the facts in the problem, we have
x - y = 45 and
y = 3x - 3
Substituting this into the first equation we have
x - (3x - 3) = 45
-2x + 3 = 45
-2x = 42
x = -21
Then we can find y by
y = 3(-21) - 3
y = -66
