Question

Malik collects rare stamps and has a total of 212 stamps. He has 34 more domestic stamps than foreign stamps. Let x represent the number of domestic stamps and let y represent the number of foreign stamps.

Which equation represents the total number of stamps Malik collected?

Which equation represents the difference in the number of foreign and domestic stamps Malik collected?

Which system of linear equations represents the situation?

Answer 1

Let x = domestic and y = foreign.

1) Total: x + y = 212

2) Difference (foreign − domestic): y − x = −34 (equivalently, domestic − foreign: x − y = 34)

3) System (using the latter form):
x + y = 212
x − y = 34

(As a check: add the equations → 2x = 246 → x = 123 domestic, so y = 89 foreign.)