In 2009 research showed that the United States and Japan topped the charts in number of social media and blog users, with a combined number of 188,610 users. The number of social media and blog users in the U.S. Was 2,378 more than three times the number of social media and blog users in Japan. Write a system of equations that models the number of social media and blog users for the U.S. And Japan. Let x represent the number of users in the U.S., and let y represent the number of users in Japan. Write the equations and solve. How many users are there in each country?

In this question, we are able to create two different equations with the data provided. The first would be the total number of users in the U.S which is the following...

x = 2,378 + 3y

The total number of users in Japan is simply represented as the variable y. The next equation would be the total number of users in both countries combined which would be the following.

188,610 = x + y

Since we already have the equation for x we can simply plug it into this equation and solve for y like so...

188,610 = 2,378 + 3y + y ... combine like terms

188,610 = 2,378 + 4y ... subtract 2,378 from both sides

186,232 = 4y ... divide both sides by 4

46,558 = y

Now we have the total number of users in Japan (y) and can plug this value into the U.S users equation to calculate the total number of U.S users...

x = 2,378 + 3y

x = 2,378 + 3(46,558)

x = 2,378 + 139,674

x = 142,052