To find the answer to "What two numbers have a product of 140 and a sum of -131?" we first state what we know. We are looking for x and y and we know that x • y = 140 and x + y = -131.
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 = -131 and solve it for y to get y = -131 - x. Then, we replace y in x • y = 140 with -131 - x to get this:
x • (-131 - x) = 140
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 140 and a sum of -131. The numbers are:
-129.92243
-1.07757
That's it! The two numbers that have a product of 140 and a sum of -131 are -129.92243 and -1.07757 as proven below:
-129.92243 • -1.07757 ≈ 140
-129.92243 + -1.07757 = -131
Note: Answers are rounded up to the nearest five decimals if necessary so the answers may not be exact.
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