To find the answer to "What two numbers have a product of -20 and a sum of -113?" we first state what we know. We are looking for x and y and we know that x • y = -20 and x + y = -113.
Before we keep going, it is important to know that x • y is the same as y • x and x + y is the same as y + x. The two variables are interchangeable. Which means that when we create one equation to solve the problem, we will have two answers.
To solve the problem, we take x + y = -113 and solve it for y to get y = -113 - x. Then, we replace y in x • y = -20 with -113 - x to get this:
x • (-113 - x) = -20
Like we said above, the x and y are interchangeable, therefore the x in the equation above could also be y. The bottom line is that when we solved the equation we got two answers which are the two numbers that have a product of -20 and a sum of -113. The numbers are:
-113.17671
0.17671
That's it! The two numbers that have a product of -20 and a sum of -113 are -113.17671 and 0.17671 as proven below:
-113.17671 • 0.17671 ≈ -20
-113.17671 + 0.17671 = -113
Note: Answers are rounded up to the nearest five decimals if necessary so the answers may not be exact.
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