Big book Test 6, Section 4, Q 29

Hey guys. I can’t seem to figure out the solution to this question. I would appreciate a helping hand. I do get that it’s either A or B. But I don’t see how the solution is A. Thanks!

How did you deduce that it is “either A or B”? Share your approach.

Sorry, man. I didn’t know what I was thinking. I should have used the substitution method, I now get the values (it was quite straightforward tbh). I just limited myself to the elimination method. :frowning_face:

I focused on 7X - 4Y = -1 to solve the problem. I then wrote out four possible scenarios for X and Y values.

  1. Scenario 1 (X & Y positive): Y is a bit bigger than X if they are both positive.
  2. Scenario 2 (X negative, Y positive): Both of them must be less than absolute value of 1 (but this is not possible as equation 2 needs two numbers bigger than absolute value of 1)
  3. Scenario 3 (X positive, Y negative): This is not possible as this would make the result of eq. 1 positive.
  4. Scenario 4 (X & Y negative): Again, Y is a bit bigger than X if they are both negative. But note that we’re dealing with negative numbers here and |X| > |Y|.

Of these 4 possible scenarios, only scenarios 1 & 4 satisfy both equations and in both those scenarios, X - Y would be negative. That’s how I deduced that A or B must be the solutions.

Feel free to point out any flaws in my reasoning process. You can surely tell that I wasn’t thinking right when I was solving the problem earlier. :sweat_smile:

1 Like