Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /7 of 60

Algebra Difficulty 3.7 AMC 10/12 Find the answer South Africa

If a+2b=13a + 2b = 13 and 5a2b=55a - 2b = 5, the value of bb is

Pick one

Solution

Given a+2b=13a + 2b = 13 and 5a2b=55a - 2b = 5, we can add both left-hand sides and both right-hand sides to find 6a=186a = 18. Thus a=3a = 3, and then since a+2b=13a + 2b = 13, we must have 2b=102b = 10, i.e. b=5b = 5.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.