UNIT 3 ALGEBRA 3 195

SOLVING PROBLEMS USING SIMULTANEOUS EQUATIONS

EXAMPLE 15 SKILL: MODELLING

Tickets at a concert cost either £10 or £15. The total takings from sales of tickets was £8750.
Sales of £10 tickets were two times the sales of £15 tickets. How many tickets were sold?

Let x be the number of £10 tickets sold, and y the number of £15 tickets sold.
The total takings was £8750, and so
10x + 15y = 8750
Divide by 5 to simplify.
2x + 3y = 1750 (1)

Sales of £10 tickets were two times the sales of £15 tickets, and so
x = 2y (2)

To check that equation (2) is correct, substitute simple numbers that obviously work,
such as x = 10, y = 5.

Substituting (2) into (1) gives 4y + 3y = 1750

7y = 1750
y = 250
and so x = 500, from (2).
750 tickets were sold in total.
Check: In (1), 1000 + 750 = 1750.

KEY POINTS
• Define your variables.
• Write equations to represent each sentence from the question.
• Solve the equations by using the substitution method or the elimination method. Choose the
method which seems the most suitable.

EXERCISE 8 1▶ The sum of two numbers is 112 and their difference is 54. Find the two numbers.
2▶ Find two numbers with a mean of 14 and a difference of 4.
9 3▶ Two times one number added to four times another gives 34. The sum of the two numbers
is 13. Find the numbers.
4▶ For this rectangle, find x and y and the area.
12x 2 3y

5x 1 2 3x 1 2y

4y 1 3
5▶ At McEaters, Pam bought two burgers and three colas, which cost her £3.45. Her friend
Pete bought four burgers and two colas, and this cost him £4.94. Work out the cost of a
burger and the cost of a cola.
196 ALGEBRA 3 UNIT 3

6▶ Becky and her friend go to the fair. Becky has three rides on the rollercoaster and
four rides on the water slide at a total cost of £8.10. Her friend has four rides on the
rollercoaster and two rides on the water slide at a total cost of £7.80.
How much is each ride?
10 7▶ A parking meter accepts only 20p coins or 50p coins. On one day, 39 coins were collected
with a total value of £11.40. Find how many 50p coins were collected.
8▶ At a concert, tickets cost either $40 or $60. 700 tickets were sold at a cost of $33 600.
Find how many $40 tickets were sold.
9▶ At an archery range, each shot costs 20c. If you hit the target, you receive 30c. Emma has
20 shots and makes a loss of 70c. How many hits did she get?
10 ▶ Alec is doing a test of 50 questions. He gets 2 marks for every question that is correct, but
loses 1 mark for every question that is wrong. Alec answers every question and scores 67
marks. How many questions did he answer correctly?

EXAMPLE 16 Ahmed makes a camel journey of 20 km. The camel travels at 12 km/h
for the first part of the journey, but then conditions become worse and
the camel can only travel at 4 km/h for the second part of the journey.
The journey takes 3 hours. Find the distance of each part of the journey.

Let x be the distance in km of the first part of the journey, and y be the
distance in km of the second part.

x + y = 20 (1) (Total distance is 20 km)

distance
Use the formula time =
speed
x y
+ =3 (2) (Total time taken is 3 hours)
12 4
Multiply equation (2) by the lowest common denominator = 12 to clear the fractions.
x + 3y = 36 (3)
x + y = 20 (1)
Subtract equation (1) from equation (3) to eliminate the terms in x.
2y = 16
y=8
From equation (1), if y = 8 then x = 12, so the first part is 12 km and the second part is 8 km.
Check: These values work in equations (1) and (2).

EXERCISE 8* 1▶ Find the intersection of the lines y = x + 1 and 3y + 2x = 13 without drawing the graphs.
2▶ The line y = mx + c passes through the points (1, 1) and (2, 3). Find m and c.
9 3▶ The denominator of a fraction is 5 more than the numerator. If both the denominator and
3
the numerator are increased by 3, the fraction becomes . Find the original fraction.
4

10 4▶ Aidan is rowing along a river in Canada. He can row at 3 m/s against the current and at
6 m/s with the current. Find the speed of the current.
5▶ One year ago, Gill was five times as old as her horse. One year from now the sum of their
ages will be 22. How old is Gill now?
 UNIT 3 ALGEBRA 3 197

11 6▶ To cover a distance of 10 km, Jacob runs some of the way at 15 km/h, and walks the rest of
the way at 5 km/h. His total journey time is 1 hour. How far did Jacob run?
7▶ On a journey of 240 km, Archita travels some of the way on a motorway at 100 km/h and
the rest of the way on minor roads at 60 km/h. The journey takes 3 hours. How far did she
travel on the motorway?
8▶ A 2-digit number is increased by 36 when the digits are reversed. The sum of the digits is
10. Find the original number.
9▶ A 2-digit number is equal to seven times the sum of its digits. If the digits are reversed, the
new number formed is 36 less than the original number. What is the number?
10 ▶ When visiting his parents, Tyler drives at an average speed of 42 km/h through urban areas
and at an average speed of 105 km/h on the motorway. His journey usually takes him 2.5
hours. One day when there is fog, he sets off 1 hour early and only manages to drive at an
average speed of 28 km/h in the urban areas and 60 km/h on the motorway. He arrives 30
minutes late. What was the total distance that Tyler travelled?

EXERCISE 9 REVISION

Factorise these.
6
1▶ x2 − 8x 2▶ 3x2 + 12x 3▶ 6xy2 − 30x2y 4▶ 12x3 + 9x2 − 15x

10
Simplify these.
x2 x x 2 + xy
5▶ 6▶
x x 2 xy

Solve these equations.

3x 4 2x + 7 x +1 3
7▶ =2 9▶ =
4 4 3 4

1 1 4 2
8▶ (x − 2) = ( x + 1) 10 ▶ 1=
4 7 n n

11 ▶ Sarah shares some sweets with her friends. She gives one-eighth of the sweets to Ann,
one-sixth to Nikita and one-third to Ruth. She then has nine sweets remaining for herself.
How many sweets did she have at the beginning?

Solve these pairs of simultaneous equations.

12 ▶ y−x=4 14 ▶ 3x + 2y = 10
y + 2x = 1 5x − 4y = 2

13 ▶ y+x=3 15 ▶ 5x − 2y = −1
y − 2x = 3 10x − 3y = 1

16 ▶ At a sale, Andy buys two books and three USB sticks for £25.50. His friend Charlie buys
four books and five USB sticks for £47.50. What is the cost of each item if all the books
cost the same and all the USB sticks cost the same?
17 ▶ Rana is collecting 10p and 20p pieces. When she has 30 coins, the value of them is £4.10.
How many of each coin does she have?
198 ALGEBRA 3 UNIT 3

EXERCISE 9* REVISION

Factorise these.
7
1▶ 3x 4 12x 3 3▶ 24x 3 y 2 18x 2 y

10 4 2
2▶ p r3 + p r2 4▶ 15a 2b 3c 2 9a 3b 2c 2 + 21a 2b2c 3
3 3

Simplify these.
x 2 xy ax bx 2a 2b
5▶ 6▶ 2
÷ 2
xy y 2 x + xy 2x + 2xy

Solve these equations.

2 2
2 9▶ 1 ( x + 1) = x + 5
7▶ (3x − 1) = 0 3 3
7

3x + 2 2x + 5 1 1 1 1
8▶ = x+3 10 ▶ + − =2
5 3 x 2x 3 x 3

11 ▶ Mrs Taylor has lived in many

countries. She spent the first third
of her life in England, the next sixth
in France, one-quarter in Spain,
1
3 years in Italy, and one-fifth in
2
Germany, where she is now living.
How old is Mrs Taylor?

Solve these pairs of simultaneous equations.

12 ▶ 5x + 4y = 22 14 ▶ 3x + 8y = 24
3x + 5y = 21 x − 2y = 1

13 ▶ 5x + 3y = 23 15 ▶ 6x + 5y = 30
x + 2y = 6 3x + 4y = 18

16 ▶ The straight line ax + by = 1 passes through the points (1, 4) and (3, 1). Find the values
of a and b.
17 ▶ Ten years from now, Abdul will be twice as old as his son Pavel. Ten years ago, Abdul was
seven times as old as Pavel. How old are Abdul and Pavel now?