Posted by Gail on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 7:23pm.
Did you notice that if you multiply the first equation by -3 you get the second equation?
or, as I guess happened when you did this question,
if you multiply the first equation by 3 and then add the two equations you end up with 0 = 0
If that happens there will be an infinite number of solutions.
(you are really only dealing with one equations whose graph is a straight line, and a straight line has an infinite number of points on it)
However, had your first equation been
3x - 11y = 8
then multiplying it by 3 and then adding it to the second equation would give you
0 = -3 which of course is FALSE.
then there would be no solution.
(your graph would be two parallel lines which would never meet, thus no solution)
thank you
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