Question

A biologist is comparing the growth of a population of flies per week to the number of flies a bullfrog will consume per week. She has devised an equation to solve for which day (x) the bullfrog would be able to eat the entire population. The equation is 2x = 3x − 1. Explain to the biologist how she can solve this on a graph using a system of equations.Please Explain

Answer 1

Realize that since 2x and 3x - 1 are equal to each other, they are also equal to y. This means that we can craft two equations, y = 2x and y = 3x - 1.

When you want to solve a systems of equations via a graph, you need to plot both equations on a graph and determine the x- and y-value of where the lines intersect. In this case, we would plot both y = 2x and y = 3x - 1. These lines intersect at the point (1, 2).

Since we are trying to find the day the bullfrog will be able to eat the entire population, or x, we are going to use the x-value of our point as our answer. Thus, our answer is 1 day.