How to solve system of equation word problems

 All you have to do is find the important info and use it and do whatever and all you have to do is take the numbers do the question and ur done :D

Hello!

System of equation word problems may seem tricky at first, but I will walk you through step by step.

Let’s say that you get the following word problem.

The price of a backpack and a purse combined equals $60. The price of the backpack is three times than the price of the purse.

In this system, we will have b represent the cost of the backpack, and p represent the cost of the purse.

First of all we see that b and p combined makes 60. This gives us our first equation.

b+p=60

We also see the b is three times the cost of p. We can write that like this.

b=3p

Now we have our system of equations.

b+p=60
b=3p

Now the best way to solve is to find out what p equals first. If we do so, we plug it into the second equation to find b.

How can we find what p is, though? In the first equation we know that whatever b is + p will give us 60. In the second equation, b=3p. In the first equation we can replace b with the information in the second equation that shows what it is equivalent to.

3p+p=60
4p=60
p=60/4
p=15

Now we know that the purse cost 15$. We also know that the backpack cost 3 times that, as written in the second equation. 15(3)=45, so now we have our values.

The backpack costed $45, and the purse costed $15.

I hope this explanation was clear enough and that it helped!