In 2009, there were 12 million fewer acres of farm land in Arizona than there were in 1980. If the sum of acreage for these two years is 64 million acres, find the number of farm land acres in Arizona for each of these years.

To find the number of farm land acres in Arizona for 1980 and 2009, you can set up a system of equations based on the given information.

Let's say x represents the number of farm land acres in 1980.
And let's say y represents the number of farm land acres in 2009.

According to the problem, there were 12 million fewer acres of farm land in Arizona in 2009 than in 1980. So we can express this relationship as:

y = x - 12 million (Equation 1)

We also know that the sum of acreage for these two years is 64 million acres. So we can express this relationship as:

x + y = 64 million (Equation 2)

Now we can solve this system of equations to find the values of x and y.

Substituting Equation 1 into Equation 2, we get:

x + (x - 12 million) = 64 million

Combining like terms:

2x - 12 million = 64 million

Adding 12 million to both sides:

2x = 64 million + 12 million

2x = 76 million

Dividing both sides by 2:

x = 38 million

Now we can substitute the value of x into Equation 1 to find the value of y:

y = x - 12 million
y = 38 million - 12 million
y = 26 million

Therefore, the number of farm land acres in Arizona for 1980 is 38 million acres, and for 2009 is 26 million acres.