The sum of two numbers is
49
. the smaller number is
19
less than the larger number. what are the numbers

Call the two numbers "" and "". From the problem statement we know that "the sum of the two numbers is 49". So let's write that:



We also know that "the smaller number is 19 less that the larger number". Let's say that "" is the larger number. We can then write:



We now have, 2 equations and 2 unknown numbers. We can solve by substitution.

We already have a substitution for "" from our second equation, so let's drop that into the other one like so:







There's our first answer.  

We can then use our equation for "":





There's our second answer.  

So: 
There's our answer.  

Wwe can use our first equation to check our work:


CHECKS

Hnmmmn not sure