To find the answer to "What two numbers have a product of -50 and a sum of -23?" we first state what we know. We are looking for x and y and we know that x • y = -50 and x + y = -23.
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 = -23 and solve it for y to get y = -23 - x. Then, we replace y in x • y = -50 with -23 - x to get this:
x • (-23 - x) = -50
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 -50 and a sum of -23. The numbers are:
-25
2
That's it! The two numbers that have a product of -50 and a sum of -23 are -25 and 2 as proven below:
-25 • 2 = -50
-25 + 2 = -23
Note: Answers are rounded up to the nearest five decimals if necessary so the answers may not be exact.
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