To find the answer to "What two numbers have a product of 61 and a sum of -42?" we first state what we know. We are looking for x and y and we know that x • y = 61 and x + y = -42.
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 = -42 and solve it for y to get y = -42 - x. Then, we replace y in x • y = 61 with -42 - x to get this:
x • (-42 - x) = 61
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 61 and a sum of -42. The numbers are:
-40.49359
-1.50641
That's it! The two numbers that have a product of 61 and a sum of -42 are -40.49359 and -1.50641 as proven below:
-40.49359 • -1.50641 ≈ 61
-40.49359 + -1.50641 = -42
Note: Answers are rounded up to the nearest five decimals if necessary so the answers may not be exact.
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