Determine if the following system of equations has no solutions, infinitely many solutions or exactly one solution. 5x + 6y = 1; - 5x - 8y = 2

One solution

Step-by-step explanation:

Hi there!

We are given this system of equations:

5x+6y=1

-5x-8y=2

And we want to see how many solutions the equation has.

Let's solve the system in order to see how many solutions it has

Let's solve this system by elimination, where we will clear one variable by adding or subtracting the equations, solve for the other variable which wasn't cleared, and then use the value of the un-cleared variable to find the value of the variable we cleared earlier.

In order to clear a variable, the coefficients in front of those variables need to be opposites of each other (ex. if we wanted to clear y, the coefficients in front of y need to be -2 and 2 respectively). In this case, the coefficients in front of x are 5 and -5, so we can immediately add the equations

Add both equations together

-2y=3

Divide both sides by -2

y=-3/2

Now substitute -3/2 as y in either one of the equations to solve for x

If we were to do it in 5x+6y=1 for instance:

5x+6(-3/2)=1

multiply

5x-9=1

add 9 to both sides

5x=10

divide both sides by 5

x=2

So we solved the system and got x=2, y=-3/2 (or as a point, (2, -3/2)). This is the point of intersection of the two equations (in case you didn't notice, the equations are actually linear equations written in standard form). This is the ONLY point at which the lines will intersect.

Therefore, the system has one solution.

Hope this helps!

step-by-step explanation: