SOLUTION: Together lake superior and lake michigan cover 54 thousand square miles. lake superior is approximately 10,000 square miles larger than lake michigan. find the sizes of both lakes

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Question 552441: Together lake superior and lake michigan cover 54 thousand square miles. lake superior is approximately 10,000 square miles larger than lake michigan. find the sizes of both lakes
Answer by neatmath(302) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!

Let S be Lake Superior, and let M be Lake Michigan.

Then we are given:

S%2BM=54000 and S=M%2B10000

Since the second equation is already solved in terms of S,

lets substitute that value for S into the first equation:

S%2BM=54000 given

%28M%2B10000%29%2BM=54000 substituted

M%2B10000%2BM=54000 simplified

2M%2B10000=54000 combined like terms

2M=44000 subtracted 10000 from both sides

M=22000 divided both sides by 2

Then we can plug this value for M into either equation to find S:

S=M%2B10000 given

S=22000%2B10000 substituted

S=32000 combined like terms

So we can now see that Lake Superior covers about 32000 square miles,

while Lake Michigan covers about 22000 square miles.

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I hope this helps! :)

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