Make Them Balance

This lesson uses hangers to explore solutions to equations and systems of equations. Students first explore a single hanger and see that values that balance the hanger are also solutions to an equation and, when plotted, form a line. Then, students encounter two hangers and see that values that balance both hangers are also solutions to both equations and fall on both lines. Using this context, students make sense of systems of equations that have one solution, no solutions, and infinite solutions.