Excel for Marketing Managers

Solving Systems of Equations

Solving

Systems of

Equations

Using the Application..............................................................................................................

Depending on the class (pre-algebra or algebra) and exactly what your goals
are, this application can be used in one of two ways. The first would be as a
worksheet to reinforce the process of solving a system of equations with two
unknowns. Sometimes, students get bogged down in learning the process
because of minor calculation errors. They may have a handle on what they are
supposed to do, but are still getting wrong answers. This worksheet would give
them an opportunity to practice the process without having to worry about the
calculations.

I have used a similar worksheet when the focus of the lesson was on solving
word problems where the students not only had to interpret the problem
correctly to arrive at the equations; they also had to solve the system of
equations correctly. If they made an error, they were unsure if it was because
of the equations they had used or because they had made computational errors.

In actual use, the student needs to enter the coefficients of each equation into
the first series of cells. Typing in the number and pressing Enter moves the

Figure 268

Protecting locked cells from being

selected by students