The sum of two numbers is 44, and the larger number is 2 more than the smaller number. What is the smaller number? If x = the smaller number and y = the larger number, then which of the following systems of equations represents the word problem?
The system of equations should read: x+y=44 -x+y=2
Actually it is not necessary to setup and solve system of equations for this type of problems. The larger number is y=(44+2)/2=23 . The smaller number is (44-2)/2=21.
