Kristen bought two sunflower plants. Plant A is 8 inches tall and is growing at a rate of 3 inches per week. Plant B is 12 inches tall and is growing at a rate of 2 inches per week. Write the two equations to represent each sunflower plant if the plants continue to grow at the same rate in your equations, X represents the number of weeks and Y represents the height of the plant in inches.

Question

when will the plants be exactly the same height?

Answer 1

For Plant A:

Y = 8 + 3X

For Plant B:

Y = 12 + 2X

To find when both plants will be the same height, set the two equations equal to each other:

8 + 3X = 12 + 2X

Solve for X:

X = 4

Therefore, the plants will be exactly the same height after 4 weeks.