In addition to my word problem woes, I have two others that I'm not too sure of:
The first one: 2/y = -4 (should read 2 over "y" equals negative 4) I need to find out what "y" is. I have 1/-2 (one over negative 2) Not sure that that's right. I multiplied "y" on both sides of the equation.
The second: -6 = 9/z (should read negative 6 equals 9 over "z") And I have z = 3/-2 (three over negative 2). Again, I multiplied "Z" on both sides and got the fraction to the lowest point.
Am I doing this correctly? I looked back in my notes and don't have any that were close to these examples. :(
2007-05-17 15:33:15 · 5 answers · asked by Majesty 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
In terms of my answers, do I have the negatives in the right place?
1 over negative 2 for the first one: 1/-2
3 over negative 2 for the second one: 3/-2
I'm seeing answers with the negative for the numerator and am confused.
2007-05-17 15:59:30 · update #1
2/y = -4
Now
-2/4 = y
So y = -1/2
-6 = 9/y
y = -9/6
y = -3/2 = -1.5
both your answers are correct
2007-05-17 15:37:18 · answer #1 · answered by looikk 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is my belief, but what seemed hard to those that started algebra and fainted because there were letters, were actually easy to those long time ago that had only seen it the first time. In my theory, people probably have thought of algebra as more of logic than a new discovery. Besides logic, it can also be considered a graph. Look at this word problem. 2 times what number gives 4? You can easily see the number is 2. Well, how did you do it? You know that since you multiplyed by two, doing the opposite will get you the number.
This is exactly what you do in algeba, 2x=4 x=2. It was easy to our mathematician fathers because they knew it was just a view of how the problem was like. Simply, just use logic to find out whether or not you got it correct. But just to tell you, you are correct for both.
2007-05-17 22:41:59 · answer #2 · answered by UnknownD 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
For the first one you should divide 2 by -4. (2/-4) and you should get y= -1/2.
The second one 9/-6 and you should get -3/2.
So yes you are doing the problems correctly. Keep up the good work!
2007-05-17 22:41:43 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Question 1
2 / y = - 4
2 = - 4 y
2 / (- 4) = y
y = - 1/2
Question 2
- 6 = 9 / z
- 6 z = 9
z = - 9 / 6
z = - 3 / 2
2007-05-18 12:08:42 · answer #4 · answered by Como 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe you are right on the first because if you plug in your answer for y 2/-.5 = -4
The same story is true for the second one. 3/2 = 1.5 and 9/-1.5 equals -6.
2007-05-17 22:39:20 · answer #5 · answered by Mark Z 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋