TITLE: Trouble manipulating equations
QUESTION [0 upvotes]: Can someone please help me find the values of $a$, $b$ and $e$? Thank you so much!
1) $\frac{1}{2}e - 4a = 0$
2) $\frac{1}{2}e - 2b = 0$
3) $\frac{3}{8}(1 + a) + \frac{1}{8}(1 + b) - 2e = 0$

REPLY [2 votes]: I will not give you the solution, but rather outline a method for you to solve it yourself. When dealing with several equations of several variables, one method is to solve for one variable in one of the equations. Then using the expression for that variable in the next equation, etc. I will give you the start:
From the first equation we solve for $a$ and get
$$a = e/8.$$
Similarly, we can solve for $b$ in equation $2$. Using these expressions for $a$ and $b$ in equation $3$ you should be able to solve for the value of variable $e$. After that it should be easy to get the actual values of $a$ and $b$.
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