Expert: Scott A Wilson - 2/20/2010

Question
3x + y = -14
4x + 3y = -22

Answer
The first equation only has one y, so we can subtract 3x from both sides.
This gives y = -3x - 14.

Put this in the second equation and solve for x.

That gives 4x + 3(-3x-14) = -22.
That works out to 4x - 9x - 42 = -22.

Add 42 to both sides of the equation.
Combine the x's by computing 4-9.
Divide both sides by the x coefficient (4-9, which is really -5).

That should give you an integer value for x.

Put this into the first equation, giving some constant + y = -14.
Subtract the constant from both sides.  This will give an integer value for y as well.

Using both of these values, check eq 2 to see if they are correct.

You should end up with x = 2y and both being negative.


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