Question

There were 35 people attending the Little League baseball game. The difference between the number of women and men at the game was 9.
Let x represent the number of women and y represent the number of men. The following system of equations represents this situation:

x+y=35

x−y=9

How many women and men were at the game?

Answer 1

(Note: I am solving the system of equations using the elimination method)

1. Cancel out a variable and add the polynomials
x + y = 35
x - y = 9
2x = 44
2       2
x  = 22

2. Substitute and solve for the other variable
(22) + y = 35
22 + y = 35
-22         -22
y = 13

3. Substitute Ordered Pairs (Optional)
(22) + (13) = 35
35 = 35

22 women and 13 men were at the game.