To find the answer to "What two numbers have a product of 157 and a sum of -142?" we first state what we know. We are looking for x and y and we know that x • y = 157 and x + y = -142.
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 = -142 and solve it for y to get y = -142 - x. Then, we replace y in x • y = 157 with -142 - x to get this:
x • (-142 - x) = 157
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 157 and a sum of -142. The numbers are:
-140.88562
-1.11438
That's it! The two numbers that have a product of 157 and a sum of -142 are -140.88562 and -1.11438 as proven below:
-140.88562 • -1.11438 ≈ 157
-140.88562 + -1.11438 = -142
Note: Answers are rounded up to the nearest five decimals if necessary so the answers may not be exact.
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