Question

2a + 7b + 17c = 31 How do you work out what a,b and c are?? any help would be appriciated

Answer 1

without more info, there's no way to assign a specific value to any of them.

Just pick any value for c, cay c=1

then you have

2a+7b +17 = 31
2a+7b=14

Now, you can pick a=7, and then b=0
or you can pick b=2 and then a=0
or, you can pick a = -7, and then b=4

and so on. In general, if you have three variables, you will need three separate equations which must all be satisfied to determine unique values for the variables.

Answer 2

Thanks for the pointer Steve! I'll try that :)