Algebra

My algebra is not what it was in my school days ... but this is very funny!

From the Futility Closet:

"Faced with the simultaneous equations

and

a lazy student ignored the second equation and solved the first in this way:



and hence x = 5 and y = 6. As it happens, that’s the right answer.

In Mathematical Circles Revisited, Howard Eves tells of “Hapless Harry,” who tackled

by writing

and