In this explainer, we will learn how to solve linearβquadratic systems of equations.
Systems of equations appear throughout many areas of science including finance, computing, and mechanics. To solve a system of equations means to find values for the variables that make every equation true.
How To: Finding the Solutions to a System of Equations by Substitution
For example, if we are given the equations then, by inspection, we can see that and is a solution. By substituting these values into each equation, we get
Since both equations hold true, we have confirmed that a solution to this system is and . We can find this solution from the equations in a number of different ways, such as elimination, substitution, and graphing to name a few. In this explainer, we will focus on the substitution method.
To solve this system of equations by substitution, we need to rearrange one of the equations to find an expression for one of our variables. One way of doing this is to rearrange the first equation as follows:
Hence, for a pair of values and to solve this system, we must have . We can then substitute this expression for into the other equation that must hold true as follows:
We can then solve this equation for as follows:
Therefore, in any solution to this system of equations. We also need to find the value ; we can do this by substituting this value for into either equation. This gives us
Hence, the solution to this system of equations is and . We could then confirm our solution by substituting these values back into the system of equations. We can see why this is true by sketching the graphs of both equations.
The point of intersection of the graphs will be the point where both equations are satisfied. We can see that there is only one point of intersection at , confirming our solution is correct.
The system of equations in the example above is called a first-degree system of equations. This is because every equation is linear (in fact, every equation is a first-degree polynomial). In the remainder of the explainer, we will focus on finding solutions to second-degree systems, which we will define below.
Definition: LinearβQuadratic System of Equations
A linearβquadratic system of equations is a system of equations formed of exactly one first-degree polynomial equation and one second-degree polynomial equation.
To fully understand this, we need to understand what is meant by a polynomial in two variables and how to determine its degree.
Definition: Polynomial Functions in Two variables
A polynomial in two variables is a function in which every term is a monomial. In particular, the variables must have nonnegative integer exponents.
The degree of a polynomial is the greatest sum of the degrees of the variables in a single term.
For example, this means that equations like can appear in second-degree systems of equations since they are all polynomial of degree at most 2. We can find the degree of each of these polynomials as follows:
- is a second-degree polynomial since the terms and are power two terms.
- is also a second-degree polynomial; we need to take the sum of the powers of the variables. We see that and , so this polynomial has degree 2.
- is a second-degree polynomial since it is a quadratic in the variable .
- is a first-degree polynomial since it is linear.
It is also worth noting that we refer to degree 2 polynomials in two variables as quadratics in two variables. For example, is a quadratic equation in two variables, for real constants , , , , , and .
We will now discuss how to solve a second-degree system of equations where one of the given equations is linear.
How To: Finding the Solutions to a LinearβQuadratic System of Equations by Substitution
Letβs try to solve the linearβquadratic system of equations
Since one of the given equations is linear, we can find an expression for in terms of by rearranging as follows:
We can then substitute this expression for into the nonlinear equation and simplify as follows:
We can take out the shared factor of 2 to get
This is then a quadratic equation in ; one way of solving this equation is by factoring. We need to find two numbers that multiply to give 3 and add to give . We note that and , so we can factor the quadratic as
For a product to be equal to zero, one of the factors must be equal to zero; hence, we have
Solving the first equation, we have ; solving the second equation, we have . We can find the corresponding -values by substituting these values into the linear equation.
First, we substitute into the equation, giving us
Then, we substitute into the equation, giving us
Hence, we have found two different solutions, either and or and . It is worth noting these solutions only work in pairs. and is one solution to the system of equations. Similarly, and is another solution; we cannot have and together as this will not solve the system.
We can verify both solutions by substituting them into the system of equations and checking that the equations are satisfied.
In our first example, we will determine all of the solutions of a pair of simultaneous equations where one equation is linear and the other is nonlinear.
Example 1: Solving Systems of Linear and Quadratic Equations
Given that and , find the value of .
Answer
We need to find the value of that satisfies this equation. We can do this by finding the pairs of values of and that satisfy both equations. We will do this by using substitution. We could start by rearranging the linear equation to find an expression for either of the variables and . However, before we do this, we can look at the nonlinear equations we are given: . In this equation, the highest power of is one, but the highest power of is 2; this means it will be easier to substitute an expression for , since we will not have to square a binomial.
So, we start by finding an expression for :
We then substitute this expression into the nonlinear equation and simplify as follows:
We can then solve for by dividing through by 6. This gives us
Hence, if and , then .
In our next two examples, we will solve a system of equations to determine the coordinates of the points of intersection of two curves.
Example 2: Solving Systems of Linear and Quadratic Equations to Find the Set of Points of Intersection of Two Given Graphs
Find the set of points of intersection of the graphs of and .
Answer
We recall that the graphs of two equations will intersect when their - and -coordinates are equal; hence, we need to find the values of and that satisfy both equations.
There are many different methods for solving simultaneous equations; since we are given one linear equation and one nonlinear equation, we will use substitution. To use substitution, we need to find an expression for one of the variables from the linear equation. We have
We can then substitute this value for into the nonlinear equation and simplify to get
We then take the square root of both sides of the equation, where we note we will get a positive and negative solution as follows:
Hence, the set of points of intersection of the graphs of and is .
Example 3: Solving Systems of Linear and Quadratic Equations to Find the Set of Points of Intersection of Two Graphs
Find the set of points of intersection of the graphs of and .
Answer
For a point to be on both graphs, its coordinates must satisfy both equations. Therefore, to determine the set of points of intersection of the given equations, we need to solve the simultaneous equations
Since one of the given equations is linear, we will attempt to solve these equations by substitution. We start by rearranging the linear equation to make the subject as follows:
We then substitute this expression for into the other equation and simplify as follows:
We can then solve this equation by rearranging and factoring as follows:
For a product to be equal to zero, one of the factors must be equal to zero; hence, we have
To find the -coordinates of the points of intersection, we can substitute the -coordinate into the equation for either curve. Since is a linear equation, it will be easier to use this equation.
First, we substitute into the equation, giving us
Then, we substitute into the equation, giving us
This gives us two points of intersection: and .
Finally, we can check that these solutions are correct by substituting them into the simultaneous equations. For example, we have and , which we substitute into the following equations respectively:
Since both equations hold true for these values of and , we have confirmed this is a solution of the simultaneous equations. We could also check the solution and in the same way.
Since the questions asks for the set of points of intersection, we write these in a set as .
In our next two examples, we will solve a pair of simultaneous equations that have multiple solutions, where one equation is linear and the other is nonlinear.
Example 4: Solving Systems of Nonlinear Equations
Solve the simultaneous equations giving your answers to two decimal places.
Answer
We can attempt to solve a system of equations by using substitution. The linear equation is already given with as the subject, so we will substitute this expression into the nonlinear equation, giving us
To solve this equation for , we need to distribute and simplify. We can start by distributing the square
We can then use this to simplify the equation as follows:
We can then divide through by 4 to get
We can solve this by using the quadratic formula that states that the solutions to the quadratic equation are provided the discriminant is nonnegative and .
We have , , and . Substituting these values in gives us
Evaluating these two roots to two decimal places, we have and .
We can find the values of by recalling that . Hence,
Calculating to two decimal places, we have and and and .
Example 5: Solving a System of Linear and Quadratic Equations
Find all of the solutions to the simultaneous equations and . Give values to two decimal places.
Answer
There are many different methods for solving simultaneous equations; since we are given one linear equation and one nonlinear equation, we will use substitution. To use substitution, we need to find an expression for one of the variables from the linear equation. We have
We can then substitute this expression for into the nonlinear equation as follows:
We need to then solve this equation for ; we can do this by first distributing over the parentheses. We will distribute each separately.
First, we have
Second, we have
Substituting these expressions into the equation and simplifying gives us
We can simplify by dividing through by 5. This gives us
This is then a quadratic equation in . We can solve this by applying the quadratic formula that states that the solutions to the quadratic equation are provided the discriminant is nonnegative and . In this quadratic equation , , and . Substituting these values in, we have
Evaluating both roots to two decimal places, we have and . However, we will need to use the exact values to determine the values of . We do this by substituting the -values into the equation .
This gives us
We can calculate these to two decimal places to get and and and . We can write these solution pairs a set, giving us .
In our final example, we will see how a real-world problem can involve solving a linearβquadratic system of equations.
Example 6: Solving Systems of Linear and Quadratic Equations
A fatherβs age is 10 more than 2 times his sonβs age. The sum of the squares of their ages is 4 more than 3 times the product of their ages. What are their ages?
Answer
Letβs start by forming equations from the given information. Letβs call the fatherβs age and the sonβs age . Since the fatherβs age is 10 more than 2 times his sonβs age, we must have
Next, since the sum of the squares of their ages is 4 more than 3 times the product of their ages, we must also have that
This is a pair of simultaneous equations where one is linear equation and the other is nonlinear. We can solve this by using substitution. We start by substituting the expression for into the nonlinear equation, which gives us
This is now an equation in . We can solve this by first distributing the parentheses and simplifying as follows:
We can solve this by factoring. We note that and , so we can factor the quadratic equation to get
Solving each factor to be equal to zero, we get two solutions to the simultaneous equations: and . However, is the sonβs age in years, so cannot be negative. Hence, there is only one solution when .
We can find the fatherβs age by substituting into the equation , which gives us
Hence, the father is 42 years old and the son is 16 years old. We can note that these ages seem reasonable for the ages of a father and son, and we can check further by substituting and back into the simultaneous equations. This gives us
Since both equations are satisfied, we can conclude these are the solutions. Hence, the fatherβs age is 42 years, the sonβs age is 16 years.
Letβs finish by recapping some of the important points of this explainer.
Key Points
- A linearβquadratic system of equations is a system of equations formed of a linear equation and a quadratic equation.
- A linearβquadratic system of equations can have two solutions, one solution, or zero solutions.
- We can find the solutions to these systems of equations by rearranging the linear equation to find an expression for a variable and then substituting the expression into the nonlinear equation.
- We can use this method to find the coordinates of the points of intersection of some graphs.