Gold pieces the first leprechaun has: x Gold pieces the second leprechaun has: y <span> The first leprechaun says to the other, ‘Give me seven of your gold pieces and I will have twice as many as you!’: The first leprechaun would have x+7 The second leprechaun would have y-7 </span>I will have twice as many as you: (1) x+7=2(y-7) <span>(1) x+7=2y-14 (1) x+7-7-2y=2y-14-7-2y (1) x-2y=-21
</span>The other one replies, ‘No way! Give me seven of yours and we’ll have the same number’ The first leprechaun would have x-7 The second leprechaun would have y+7 We’ll have the same number: (2) x-7=y+7 (2) x-7+7-y=y+7+7-y (2) x-y=14
<span>How many gold pieces does the first leprechaun have? x=? We have a system with 2 equations and two unknows (x and y). We need to solve for x: (1) x-2y=-21 (2) x-y=14
Using the method of substitution, we can isolating y in the second equation: (2) x-y=14 (2) x-y+y-14=14+y-14 (2) x-14=y (2) y=x-14
And we can replace y in the first equation by x-14, and solve for x: (1) x-2y=-21 (1) x-2(x-14)=-21 (1) x-2x+28=-21 (1) -x+28=-21 (1) -x+28-28=-21-28 (1) -x=-49 (1) (-1)*(-x=-49) (1) x=49
Answer: T</span>he first leprechaun has 49 gold pieces