Perhaps you've heard of the famous English pirate named Blackbeard, but did you ever hear about his Spanish cousing, Barbanegra? Probably not. He was the mathematician of the high seas. When he buried his treasure, he did so in a very algebraic manner. Really!

For example, once after a very successful raid on a rich merchant ship, he took three of his most trusted henchmen onto the island with the loot to bury it in a very special way. Barbanegra stood by a certain palm tree with a long string in his hand, Holding one end in his hand, he gave the other end to one of his men and directed him to walk 6 varas straight south, then 8 varas due east.

He gave another string to each of the other two men, instructing one to walk a spot 6 varas due east and 2 varas due north of the tree. He told the third man to walk to a spot that was 6 varas due south and 2 varas due west.


Once everyone was in position, the strings were stretched taut, forming two straight lines. The spot where they crossed was the place that Barbanegra wanted to dig a hole to store his treasure. And they did just that.

Your task now is to determine the coordinates of that "X" spot, given that coordinate pair for the tree is (3, 4).

One piece of advice: isomg graph paper will help give you the general idea for the answer, but it will not give you the exact coordinates. They must be expressed in mixed number form, which means no decimals either. So you must use another of the techniques couvered in your algebra textbooks, okay?

P.S. A vara is a legitimate unit of linear measure in the Spanish world.

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I don't have any techniques in my algebra textbook, so I can't answer. I think this problem was meant for you...

This could be a tricky problem if the particular palm tree in question is located two varas or so from the north pole - unlikely for a palm tree, to be sure, but it makes the problem a bit more interesting!

This problem isn't bad. You have a starting point, (3,4). Use the given directions, plot the endpoints. This will give you two lines. Use the data points you found from the directions to find the equations of the lines. Set them equal and solve for x marks the spot.
Give it a go. Write back if you're stuck.

This problem isn't bad. You have a starting point, (3,4). Use the given directions, plot the endpoints. This will give you two lines. Use the data points you found from the directions to find the equations of the lines. Set them equal and solve for x marks the spot.
Give it a go. Write back if you're stuck.

Yeah I am still stuck on the part of how you use mixed numbers if you could respond in the next 30 minutes that would be great.