Expert: Richard J. Raridon - 6/25/2008

Question
Hello, I am an older student and while the younger whipper snappers are doing this really fast I am going completely blank.  Question tells me to do the elimination method but use the multiplication principle first:  2W - 3Z = 1   and    3W + 4Z = 24  
Thanks, I feel so silly.

Answer
from the first eq. W = (3Z+1)/2
put that into the second eq. to get 3(3Z+1)/2 +4Z = 24.
multiply each term by 2 to get 9Z+3 +8Z = 48
so 17Z = 45 and Z = 45/17.  put that back into either equation to get
W = 76/17
Oops, I just noticed that you were supposed to use the multiplication principle first so maybe what they want is to multiply the first equation by 4 and the second equation by 3 to get
8W-12Z = 4 and 9W+12Z = 72
now if you add those equations, you get 17W=76 so W = 76/17
and then solve for Z.  
usually they give problems so that the answers are integers but not this time.