SOLUTIONS TO MATHEMATICS 17 EXERCISES

Systems of Linear Equations (Two and Three Variables)

2016 September 24
I. We intend to solve the following systems of equations. As we stated in a previous post, we
provide minimal details about the solutions (especially when the system looks a little weird),
and go straight to the answers. The idea of the solution makes use of the two techniques
we discussed last time: elimination by substitution, and elimination by addition. And thus,
without further ado:
(
2x y = 24
(a)
= x = 7, y = 10
x + y = 3
(
8s 2t + 1 = 0
7
1
(b)
= s = 1, t =
t
= s3
2
2
(
2x + 3y 12 = 0
(c)
= no solution
4x + 6y 6 = 0
(
3k + 4m 4 = 0
2
12
(d)
= k = , m =
7
7
5k + 2m 8 = 0
(
3u v = 4
(e)
= no solution
6u + 2v = 8

4 3

+ = 27
1
1
y
= x = , y =
(f) x
2
5

3
5
= 19
x y
1
1
Here, we can use the substitution u = , v = , and end up with the equivalent
x
y
system
(
4u + 3v = 27
2u 5v = 19
which we can solve as we had done before.

4x + 3y + z = 1
(g)
x y 2z = 6 = x = 1, y = 1, z = 2

2x 2y + z = 2

4x + 2y + 3z = 3
(h)
2x
7z = 5 = x = 1, y = 2, z = 1

3y + 4z = 2

+ 4r = 8

c
(i)
2l + r = 5 = c = 3, l = 4, r = 1

2c + 3l
=1


2x +

(j) 3x +

3y z = 0
7
y
= 9 = x = 1 , y = 3, z = 10
2
2
z
2y + = 11
2

=8

a+b
(k) 2a
c = 4 = a = 3, b = 5, c = 2

b + 2c = 9

3 2

=1

u v
1
1
1
1
(l)
+ = 5 = u = 1, v = , w =

2
3
v w

2
+ =5
u
w
1
1
1
If we let a = , b = , and c = , then we have this system:
u
v
w

=1

3a 2b
b + 2c = 5

2a
+ c=5
Which gives us a = 1, b = 2, c = 3. By substituting back to u, v, w, we get the
answer above.

(m)

(
4x2 + y 2 = 17
x2 + y = 5

= x = 2, y = 1 or x = 2, y = 1 or x =

2, y = 3 or x = 2, y = 3

Weird stuff going on - theres x2 ! We can do two things:

i. From the second equation, we have y = 5 x2 . We can substitute this into the
first equation, to get x4 6x2 + 8 = 0, asolvable equation
in quadratic form. The
solutions here are x1 = 4, x2 = 4, x3 = 2, and x4 = 2. The first two solutions
for x give y1 = 4, and the second two give us y2 = 3.
ii. OR, we can eliminate x2 by multiplying the second equation by -4 and adding it to
the first equation, to get y 2 4y = 3 = y 2 4y + 3 = 0. Thus,we have y1= 1,
and y2 = 3, which give us, in turn, x1a = 2, x1b = 2, and x2a = 2, x2b = 2.
Quite tedious a checking part, it is. But we are checking eight pairs of solutions, four
of which qualify as our final answers. (When we get to Math 54, we can recall this
exercise and see what exactly we are doing: we are finding the coordinates of the points
of intersection of an ellipse and a parabola, which can intersect in at most four points.)
(
(n)

x2 + y 2 = 1

2x + 3y = 6

= no solution

We can do some substitution here, either for x in terms of y, or for y in terms of

x. The resulting equation turns out to have fractions all over, but is still easy to solve.
Or is it?
As usual, we can do another solution: we multiply the first equation by 9, to get

9x2 +9y 2 = 9 = (3x)2 +(3y)2 . Now, from the second equation, we can write 3y = 2x+6,
and replace the 3y in our first equation: (3x)2 + (2x + 6)2 = 9 = 13x2 + 24x + 27 = 0.
We can check that D = 242 4(13)(27) < 0. Hence, no solution for x exists, and so we
say as above.

(o)

(
4x2 y 2 = 4
y = x2

= x =

2, y = 2 or x = 2, y = 2

Here, we have no choice but to substitute y = x2 into the first equation, and solve
for x as we had done before.

(p)

(q)

(
2(x2 + 2x) y = 4
3(x2 + 2x) 2y = 7
(
x2 + y 2 8y = 7

= x = 5, y = 26 or x = 3, y = 26

x2 + y 2 = 6x + 8y

= x = 0, y = 0 or x = 0, y = 8

Seems like theres not much to be stressed about here: we can simply do some substitution to get 6x + 8y 8y = 7. Then we can solve for x and y.
But we have to look closely: x2 + y 2 8y = 7 x2 + y 2 8y + 16 = 9
x2 + (y 4)2 = 9. So we actually have a circle! Similarly, the second equation becomes
(x + 3)2 + (y 4)2 = 25, another circle. So we can subtract these equations to get
(x + 3)2 x2 = 9, which is a relatively nicer equation to stare at.

2
2
2

4x y + z = 1
(r) 2x2 y 2 3z 2 = 9 = x = 1, y = 2, z = 1

3x2 + 4y 2 2z 2 = 17
Here, we committed another brain-draining error: the second equation should have
-9 on the right side, not -6. (That statement applies if ever you took a crack at this
system. Otherwise, we can proceed.)
We can let a = x2 , b = y 2 , c = z 2 , and get the equivalent system

4a b + c = 1
2a b 3c = 9

3a + 4b 2c = 17
And by getting the values for a, b, and c and going back to x, y, and z, we get the eight
answers above. (We condensed the answers to save space; basically, we mix and match
the positive values and negative values to get the answers.)

II. We try to find the points of intersection of the following curves, which we put in the rightmost
column. Here is where we express our answers as solution sets, since we can think of this
part as getting the intersection of sets of points satisfying the equations we have.
Curve 2
Points of Intersection
Curve 1
i.
4x + 3y + 10 = 0
3x + 5y + 7 = 0
{(1, 2)}


2
ii.
y =x1
y = 2x + 6x + 2
{ 12 , 23 , (3, 2)}
iii.
y = 8x 1
y = x2 + 2x + 6

2
2
iv.
x + y = 10
3y = x + 10
{(1, 3)}
3y = x
{(3, 1), (3, 1)}
v.
x2 + y 2 = 10
vi.
x2 + y 2 = 10
3y = x + 15

2
2
vii.
y = x + 8x
y = 2x x + 12
{(4, 16), (1, 9)}
viii.
y = x2 + 6x
y = x2 2x 8
{(2, 8)}
2
2
2
2
{(1, 1), (5, 3)}
ix. (x + 4) + (y 2) = 26 x + y + 8y 10 = 0
(x + 1)2 + (y + 1)2 = 8
{(1, 1)}
x.
x2 + y 2 = 2
The first row concerns two linear equations, which is easy enough. The next two rows have
a line and a parabola, and can be solved equally easily. The next three rows have a line and
a circle, which can intersect at two points, one point (in which case the line is
to
the circle), or no point at all.
The last four rows concern the unnecessary stuff pointed out by your lecture instructor last time. When two parabolas intersect, we expect at most four points of intersection,
if they do intersect. (However, we only consider cases with only zero, one, or two points of
intersection. For now.) Rows 7 and 8 can be easily solved still, since we can substitute y in
either of the equations by the other expression for y.
Rows 9 and 10 concern two circles, which can intersect in zero, one, or two points as well.
We just look at what happens in each row:
(ix) (x + 4)2 + (y 2)2 = 26, x2 + y 2 + 8y 10 = 0
The first equation can be rewritten as x2 + y 2 + 8x 4y 6 = 0, or (x2 + y 2 + 8y 10) + 8x
12y + 4 = 0. Hence, we can actually write 0 = 8x 12y + 4 (why?), or 0 = 2x 3y + 1. We
can thus isolate either x or y from this equation, and substitute it into the equation of the
second circle (for easier computation). So we should an equation, with solutions y = 1, y = 3
(if we chose the x-substitution) or x = 1, x = 5 (if we chose the y-substitution). A little
more checking, and we get the solutions above.
(x) x2 + y 2 = 2, (x + 1)2 + (y + 1)2 = 8
Here, we expand the second equation: x2 + y 2 + 2x + 2y 6 = 0. Since x2 + y 2 = 2,
we can use substitution to get 2x + 2y 4 = 0 y = 2 x. We can now use this to solve
the first equation in terms of x, and we should end up with 2x2 4x + 2 = 0, giving us x = 1
and two possible values for y. But only one will satisfy the equations we have, and thats
the content of our SS.

III. The sum of the digits of a three-digit number is 18. Interchanging the second and third digit
will increase the number by 36. If the first and the third digits were interchanged, the new
number is 99 less than the original number. Find the original number.
If we represent our three-digit number using the digits a, b, c, then we have the original
number as 100a + 10b + c, and the following equations:

c = 18

a+ b+
100a + b + 10c = 100a + 10b + c + 36

a + 10b + 100c = 100a + 10b + c 99

which is equivalent to this:

a + b + c = 18
b+c=4

a
c=1
Thus we get a = 8, b = 3, c = 7, and our original number is 837 .
IV. Find the elements of the set
R = {(x, y)

R2 | 10x2 xy + 4y2 = 28 and 2x2 3xy 2y2 = 0}

As we pointed out last time, it helps if we remove the xy term:

(
(
10x2 xy + 4y 2 = 28
30x2 + 3xy 12y 2 = 84
=
2x2 3xy 2y 2 = 0
2x2 3xy 2y 2 = 0
Adding up the two equations on the right gives us 2x2 + y 2 = 6. And we should see that we
cant do anything other than saying
R = {(x, y)

R2 | 2x2 + y2 = 6}

V. Find the equation of the parabola and circle containing the following points, if they exist.
(a) A1 (1, 11), A2 (0, 6), A3 (2, 18)
(b) B1 (5, 2), B2 (1, 4), B3 (3, 0)
Here, we can use the following equations:
(i) For finding the equation of the parabola, we use the general quadratic equation y =
ax2 + bx + c, and generate three equations from the three points we have.
(ii) For the equation of the circle, we can use the general form of the equation for a circle,
x2 + y 2 + dx + ey + f = 0, and obtain three equations in d, e, and f .
We use these equations for item (b), and leave (a) for you to solve.
For the parabola, we get

2
=
a(5)
+
b(5)
+
c

25a + 5b + c = 2
2
4 = a(1) + b(1) + c =
a b + c = 4

2
+ 0 = a(3) + b(3) + c
9a + 3b + c = 0
5
1
And we should get a = , b = , c = 2. Hence, our parabola containing B1 , B2 and B3
3
3
1 2 5
has equation y = x + x 2 .
3
3
For the circle, we get the following system:

5d 2e + f = 29
d 4e + f = 17

3d
+ f = 9
And we should end up with d = 4, e = 6, f = 3, and the equation x2 + y 2 4x + 6y + 3 = 0 .
(This can always be converted into the other form.) You can solve (a) if you want, and check
if the answer is... nice. But chances are low that any problem of the type from parts IV-V
would ever show up in the future. We should be prepared, however, when similar
problems arise elsewhere.
/michaelbay20160924