1987 AHSME Problems/Problem 11

Problem

Let $c$ be a constant. The simultaneous equations \begin{align*}x-y = &\ 2 \\cx+y = &\ 3 \\\end{align*} have a solution $(x, y)$ inside Quadrant I if and only if

$\textbf{(A)}\ c=-1 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ c>-1 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ c<\frac{3}{2} \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 0<c<\frac{3}{2}\\ \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ -1<c<\frac{3}{2}$

Solution

We can easily solve the equations algebraically to deduce $x = \frac{5}{c+1}$ and $y = \frac{3-2c}{c+1}$. Thus we firstly need $x > 0 \implies c + 1 > 0 \implies c > -1$. Now $y > 0$ implies $\frac{3-2c}{c+1} > 0$, and since we now know that $c+1$ must be $>0$, the inequality simply becomes $3-2c > 0 \implies 3 > 2c \implies c < \frac{3}{2}$. Thus we combine the inequalities $c > -1$ and $c < \frac{3}{2}$ to get $-1 < c < \frac{3}{2}$, which is answer $\boxed{\text{E}}$.

See also

1987 AHSME (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 10
Followed by
Problem 12
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
All AHSME Problems and Solutions

The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions. AMC logo.png