To find the answer to "What two numbers have a product of 72 and a sum of 187?" we first state what we know. We are looking for x and y and we know that x • y = 72 and x + y = 187.
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 = 187 and solve it for y to get y = 187 - x. Then, we replace y in x • y = 72 with 187 - x to get this:
x • (187 - x) = 72
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 72 and a sum of 187. The numbers are:
0.38582
186.61418
That's it! The two numbers that have a product of 72 and a sum of 187 are 0.38582 and 186.61418 as proven below:
0.38582 • 186.61418 ≈ 72
0.38582 + 186.61418 = 187
Note: Answers are rounded up to the nearest five decimals if necessary so the answers may not be exact.
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