Split - Word Problem

giggles

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Sep 23, 2010
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hi i have a problem the word problem says "one third of th sum of two numbers is -1/3, while one third of their difference is 3. find the numbers...i am just having problems setting the equation up! can some one help me please :D
 
giggles said:
hi i have a problem the word problem says "one third of th sum of two numbers is -1/3, while one third of their difference is 3. find the numbers...i am just having problems setting the equation up! can some one help me please :D

You are looking for two numbers....you could start by defining variables.

Let x = first number (we can call that the LARGER number)
Let y = second number (and this will be the SMALLER)

How would you represent the SUM of the two numbers?

And how would you represent "one-third of the sum"?

The problem says
"One-third of the sum of two number is -1/3"

Can you write an equation to fit this sentence?

Ok....maybe this will be enough to get you through the problem, but if you need more help, then please show how you've answered the questions I've asked, and we can go from there.
 
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