Afamily has two cars. the first car has a fuel efficiency of 25 miles per gallon of gas and the second has a fuel efficiency of 40 miles per gallon of gas. during one particular week, the two cars went a combined total of 1800 miles, for a total gas consumption of 60 gallons. how many gallons were consumed by each of the two cars that week?

1 ANSWERMichael J.East Elmhurst, NY1 0Let x = gallons consumed by car 1Let y = gallons consumed by car 2  We set up our equations: 35x+40y = 1850        eq1x+y = 50                   eq2 Substituting eq 2 into eq 1, 35x+40(50-x) = 185035x+2000-40x = 1850-5x+2000 = 1850-5x = -150   x = 30 Substitute value of x into eq 2. x+y = 5030+y = 50      y = 20 Car 1 consumes 30 gallons of gas.Car 2 consumes 20 gallons of gas

The variables should add up to equal 1