Question

you have a cable plan that cost 39 a month for a basic plan plus a movie channel your friend has the same basic plan plus two movie channels for 45.50 what is the basic plan charge they both pay

Answer 1

Let x = cost of basic plan
Let y = cost of movie channel

We can create the following system of equations

39 = x + y
45.5 = x + 2y

We can solve this system of equations using elimination by subtracting the first equation from the second equation.

45.5 = x + 2y
-39 = -x - y
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6.5 = 0 + y
6.5 = y

So the cost of the movie channel is $6.50. We can back substitute (replace) y in the first original equation with 6.5 and solve for x.

39 = x + y
39 = x + (6.5)
39 - 6.5 = x + 6.5 - 6.5
32.5 = x + 0
32.5 = x

The cost of the basic plan is $32.50 a month.