the sales person said you have 38 homes for sale and use x and y to denote one floor plan from the other and you have 2 floor plans.they tell you 1 sales for 175000 and the other sales for 200000 for a total of 7200000. Use elimination to determine how many houses are available in each floor plan

x is the number of homes with one floor plan
y is the number of homes with another floor plan.

There are 38 homes, with one type of floor plan each.

That means, x + y = 38

Now, the first floor plan costs 175 000
the second floor plan costs 200 000

So, the cost of all homes with the first floor plan becomes 175 000x and that for all the homes with the other floor plan becomes 200 000y.

Together, they make 175 000x + 200 000y = 7 200 000.

Use elimination? That sounds more tedious...

Anyway, to eliminate one, subtract the second from the first equation, after multiplying the first one by the proper factor, which is 175 000 here.

Code:

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175 000x + 200 000y =  7 200 000
175 000x + 175 000y = 273 600 000

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Clearly, there's something that is wrong because you'll have negative values for the number of homes. This means that you didn't mention the proper details in the right way.

Post the actual question, with what you attempted to do and the solution you think is correct.