What is 3x plus 2y equals negative 8?

Answer 1

3x + 2y = 8

To solve P amount of variables, you need P equations. (e.g., for this problem you'd need two equations to actually solve for it.) However, with that said, there are an infinite amount of solutions that "work".

First, solve for one of the variables. People are typically use to y=... form so:

3x + 2y = 8

2y = 8 - 3x

y = (1/2)(8-3x)

y = 4-(3/2)x <---- you have a slope of -3/2

To demo how you have an infinite amount of solutions, I'll just pick some random x values.

x=-1000000: y=4-(3/2)(-1000000) = 1500004

x=2: y=4-(3/2)(2)=4-3=1

x=4: y=4-(3/2)(4)=4-6=-2

x=1000000: y=4-(3/2)(1000000) = -1499996

The general solution is y = 4 - 3/2x

A specific solution, although there are an infinite amount, is (2,1)