so your total is $6584
tution costs $704 more than room and board
you know nothing about how much the room and board cost so thats your "naked variable" so chose a variable to go in place of that. im going to coose r.
tuition($704 more than room and board): r +704
room and board(you know nothing about it): r
so add it all together you get r+704+r=your total.
sole the equation
2r +704= 6584
-704 on both sides
you get 5880 so it would come to 2r= 5880
divide by 2 on both sides
so r= 2940
r is the room and board so put 2940 in place of r in the equation you get from your variables which are r and r+704
so the final equation is 2940 +704 and your final answer is 3644
