Question

A certain tiger shark is 55 cm long at birth and grows 2.5 cm / year. A certain hammerhead shark is 25 cm long at birth and grows 5 cm/year. When will the sharks be equal in length?

Let x = time in years

Let y = length of the sea creatures

The equation for the length of the tiger shark is
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. The equation for the length of the spiny dogfish hammerhead shark is
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. Solving with elimination, the sharks will be equal in length when
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years have passed.

Answer 1

Answer:

Step-by-step explanation:

equation for tiger shark:

for each additional year, it grows by 2.5 cm so that would be shown as 2.5x. also it starts at 55 so you would have to add 55 to that 2.5x.

the equation would be y = 2.5x + 55

equation for hammerhead:

do the same process with the other numbers. this would be

y = 5x + 25

solve with elimination:

subtract the two equations, which would eliminate the y variable

y = 5x + 25

- (y = 2.5x + 55)

you get

0 = 2.5x - 30

solve that for x

2.5x = 30

x = 12 years

so the years that have passed is 12. to find the length, plug in x = 12 into one of the equations:

y = 5x + 25 becomes y = 5 * 12 + 25 = 60 + 25 = 85

so they will be 85 cm long each.