SYSTEMS OF EQUATIONS in THREE VARIABLES
It is often desirable or even necessary to use more than one variable to
model a situation in a field such as business, science, psychology, engineering,
education, and sociology, to name a few. When this is the case, we write and
solve a system of equations in order to answer questions about the situation.
If a system of linear equations has at least one solution, it is consistent.
If the system has no solutions, it is inconsistent. If the system has an
infinity number of solutions, it is dependent. Otherwise it is
independent.
A linear equation in three variables is an equation equivalent to the equation
where
,
,
,
and
are real numbers and
,
,
,
and
are not all
.
Example 1:
John inherited $25,000 and invested part of it in a money market account, part
in municipal bonds, and part in a mutual fund. After one year, he received a
total of $1,620 in simple interest from the three investments. The money market
paid 6% annually, the bonds paid 7% annually, and the mutually fund paid 8%
annually. There was $6,000 more invested in the bonds than the mutual funds.
Find the amount John invested in each category.
There are three unknowns:
1 : The amount of money invested in the money market account.
2 : The amount of money invested in municipal bonds.
3 : The amount of money invested in a mutual fund.
Let's rewrite the paragraph that asks the question we are to answer.
[The amount of money invested in the money market account + [The amount of
money invested in municipal bonds ] + [The amount of money invested in a mutual
fund ]
The 6% interest on [ The amount of money invested in the money market account
]+ the 7% interest on [ The amount of money invested in municipal bonds ] + the
8% interest on [ The amount of money invested in a mutual fund ]
[The amount of money invested in municipal bonds ] - [ The amount of money
invested in a mutual fund ] =
.
It is going to get boring if we keep repeating the phrases
1 : The amount of money invested in the money market account.
2 : The amount of money invested in municipal bonds.
3 : The amount of money invested in a mutual fund.
Let's create a shortcut by letting symbols represent these phrases. Let
x = The amount of money invested in the money market account.
y = The amount of money invested in municipal bonds.
z = The amount of money invested in a mutual fund.
in the three sentences, and then rewrite them.
The sentence [ The amount of money invested in the money market account ]
[ The amount of money invested in municipal bonds ]
[ The amount of money invested in a mutual fund ]
can now be written as
The sentence The
interest on [ The amount of money invested in the money market account ]
the
interest on [ The amount of money invested in municipal bonds ]
the
interest on [ The amount of money invested in a mutual fund ]
can now be written as
The sentence [ The amount of money invested in municipal bonds ]
[ The amount of money invested in a mutual fund ]
can now be written as
We have converted the problem from one described by words to one that is
described by three equations.
We are going to show you how to solve this system of equations three different
ways:
1) Substitution,
2) Elimination,
3) Matrices.
SUBSTITUTION:
The process of substitution involves several steps:
Step 1: Solve for one of the variables in one of the equations. It makes
no difference which equation and which variable you choose. Let's solve for
in equation (3) because the equation only has two variables.
Step 2: Substitute this value for
in equations (1) and (2). This will change equations (1) and (2) to equations in
the two variables
and
.
Call the changed equations (4) and (5).
or
Step 3: Solve for
in equation (4).
Step 4: Substitute this value of
in equation (5). This will give you an equation in one variable.
Step 5: Solve for
.
Step 6: Substitute this value of
in equation (4) and solve for
.
Step 7: Substitute
for
and
for
in equation (1) and solve for
.
The solutions:
is invested in the monkey market account,
is invested in the municipal bonds, and
is invested in mutual funds.
Step 8: Check the solutions:
Yes
Yes
Yes
ELIMINATION:
The process of elimination involves several steps: First you reduce three
equations to two equations with two variables, and then to one equation with one
variable.
Step 1: Decide which variable you will eliminate. It makes no difference
which one you choose. Let us eliminate
first because
is missing from equation (3).
Step 2: Multiply both sides of equation (1) by
and then add the transformed equation (1) to equation (2) to form equation (4).
(1) :
(2) :
(4) :
Step 3: We now have two equations with two variables.
(3) :
(4) :
Step 4: Multiply both sides of equation (3) by
and add to equation (4) to create equation (5) with just one variable.
Step 5: Solve for
in equation (5).
Step 6: Substitute
for
in equation (3) and solve for
.
Step 7: Substitute
for
and
for
in equation (1) and solve for
.
Check your answers as before.
MATRICES:
The process of using matrices is essentially a shortcut of the process of
elimination. Each row of the matrix represents an equation and each column
represents coefficients of one of the variables.
Step 1: Create a three-row by four-column matrix using coefficients and
the constant of each equation.
The vertical lines in the matrix stands for the equal signs between both sides
of each equation. The first column contains the coefficients of x, the second
column contains the coefficients of y, the third column contains the
coefficients of z, and the last column contains the constants.
We want to convert the original matrix
to the following matrix.
Because then you can read the matrix as
,
,
and
.
Step 2: We work with column 1 first. The number 1 is already in cell
11(Row1-Col 1). Add
times Row 1 to Row 2 to form a new Row 2.
Step 3: We will now work with column 1. We want 1 in Cell 22, and we
achieve this by multiply Row 2 by
.
Step 4: Let's now manipulate the matrix so that there are zeros in Cell
12 and Cell 32. We do this by adding
times Row 2 to Row 1 and Row 3 for a new Row 1 and a new Row 3.
Step 5: Let's now manipulate the matrix so that there is a 1 in Cell 33.
We do this by multiplying Row 3 by
.
Step 6: Let's now manipulate the matrix so that there are zeros in Cell
13 and Cell 23. We do this by adding Row 3 to Row 1 for a new Row 1 and adding
-2 times Row 3 to Row 3 for a new Row 3.
You can now read the answers off the matrix:
,
,
and
.
check your answers by the method described above.
|