There were some ducks in a pond. twenty-eight ducks flew away . seven more arrived at the pond. now there are 43 ducks in the pond. how many ducks were in the pond to start? how did you find the answer 64

check the picture below.

well, the angle at the vertex d is clearly not a right-angle, let's check for the one at the vertex f which does look like,   however if it's indeed, that means ef is perpendicular to df, in which case their slopes will be negative reciprocal of each other.

so the negative reciprocal of the slope of ef is 1, however the slope of df is not 1, is 1/2, so nope, they're not perpendicular lines.

{x = -1/2 ,   y = -1

step-by-step explanation:

solve the following system:

{2 x + y = -2

{10 x - 3 y = -2

in the first equation, look to solve for y:

{2 x + y = -2

{10 x - 3 y = -2

subtract 2 x from both sides:

{y = -2 x - 2

{10 x - 3 y = -2

substitute y = -2 x - 2 into the second equation:

{y = -2 x - 2

{10 x - 3 (-2 x - 2) = -2

10 x - 3 (-2 x - 2) = (6 x + 6) + 10 x = 16 x + 6:

{y = -2 x - 2

{16 x + 6 = -2

in the second equation, look to solve for x:

{y = -2 x - 2

{16 x + 6 = -2

subtract 6 from both sides:

{y = -2 x - 2

{16 x = -8

divide both sides by 16:

{y = -2 x - 2

{x = -1/2

substitute x = -1/2 into the first equation:

{y = -1

{x = -1/2

collect results in alphabetical order:

answer:   {x = -1/2 ,   y = -1