AT&T offers a base rate for their cell phone plans of 35 dollars a month, with an

addition fee of 15 cents per text message(x), and 4 dollars per gb of data(z).

Verizon offers a base rate for their cell phone plans of 40 dollars a month, with an
addition fee of 10 cents per text message(x), and 5 dollars per gb of data(z).

Sprint offers a base rate for their cell phone plans of 25 dollars a month, with an
addition fee of 18 cents per text message(x), and 3 dollars per gb of data(z)

Find the amount texts and data that would give the same monthly payment for all
three plans (solve the system of equations) Form a matrix from this system of
equations
.15x-y+4z=35
.1x-y+5z=40
.18x-y+3z=25
One approach is to put the matrix into row echelon form and use back
substitution to solve the system.
What comes out when you put it in row echelon form is
1 -5.6 16.67 = 138.9
0 1

-7.5

= -58.75

0 0

=17.5

Z=17.5
Y=7.5(17.5)=58.75
X=-5.6(72.5)-16.67(17.5)+138.9= 253.18
Therefore when you have 253.18 text messages all the plans will be equal

The second approach would be to use reduced row echelon form, and when you
plug all the numbers in like
.15 -1 4 35
.1

-1 5 40

.18 -1 3 25

The outcome will be

1 0 0 250
0 1 0 72.5
0 0 1 17.5
Therefore at 250 text messages the plans will all be equal