Question

How do you decide which variable to isolate in order to use the substitution method to solve a system of linear equation?​

Answer 1

It doesn’t really matter which variable you isolate first but usually you would use the one that’s by itself already. like for example one of the equations was y = 8. you would already have your y solve for so you would just have to plug that in for y in the other equation. personally, i usually do x first unless one of the equations has either x or y by itself already. i think its easier to just do x first and then solve for y after that, but it just depends on what the equations are; sometimes it might be easier to just do y first. hope this helps!