Rate, Distance and Time 

Travel Situations

Finding the Best Deal 

Cost and Demand

Real World Example:

Suppose you start a business making and selling wooden swings for the yard. It costs you $1500 for tools and lumber to get started, and the materials for each swing cost $200. Your swings sell for $300. Write and solve a system of equations representing the total cost and revenue of your business. Describe what the solution means in terms of the situation.

Scroll to the bottom to find the steps along with the solution!

There is also a fourth way to find a solution to a system and that is using a matrix. This bulletin will focus on the first three ways. 

 

René Descartes is known as the father of Analytic Geometry. He successfully linked geometry and algebra, which were separate in the 17^th century. He solved problems in geometry by converting them into problems in algebra. He discovered this to be a simpler process. 

 

FUN FACT: The Cartesian plane is derived from his name!

 

Carl Friedrich Gauss is known as a contributor to the discovery of solving systems of equations during the 19^th century. He founded Gaussian elimination, which is an algorithm used to solve a system of linear equations involving matrices. Over time, the method using Gaussian elimination can be used without the use of matrix notation. This is commonly used in solving systems of equations.