John wants to examine whether social comparison processes help explain why the group polarization effect occurs, beyond the effects of persuasive arguments. He decides to conduct an experiment. John should expose individual group members to to see if group polarization still occurs.

1. the positions endorsed by the rest of the group without conveying the specific content of their arguments

2. the positions endorsed by all others in the group and the specific content of their respective arguments

In order to investigate situations such as that of the skateboard manufacturer, we need to recognize that we are dealing with more than one variable and likely more than one equation. A system of linear equations consists of two or more linear equations made up of two or more variables such that all equations in the system are considered simultaneously. To find the unique solution to a system of linear equations, we must find a numerical value for each variable in the system that will satisfy all equations in the system at the same time. Some linear systems may not have a solution and others may have an infinite number of solutions. In order for a linear system to have a unique solution, there must be at least as many equations as there are variables. Even so, this does not guarantee a unique solution.

In this section, we will look at systems of linear