If c is the number of acres of corn and w the number of acres of wheat, the first equation is that the sum of c and w equals 180.
System of Equations: c+w=180 c=3w Acres of Corn: 135 Acres of Wheat: 45
Practice makes perfect
Let c be the number of acres of corn and w be the number of acres of wheat the farmer wants to plant. Since there is a total of 180 acres, we can write the first equation as follows.
c+w=180We also know that the farmer wants to plant three times as many acres of corn as wheat. We can write this as c=3w. If we combine the equations, we have the following system of equations.
c+w=180 c=3w
To find the number of acres of each crop the farmer should plant we have to solve for c and w. Since c is already isolated in the second equation we will substitute 3w for c in the first equation and proceed to solve for w.
