Bob had N shrimp.
Then we read this:
John had 8 more shrimp than Bob
To express how many shrimp John had, we must
take the N shrimp that Bob has and add 8 to it.
To take N and add 8 to it, we write "N" and then
write "+8" after it. Like this:
N+8
So John had N+8 shrimp.
Then we read this:
all together they had 32 shrimp.
So we must add together the N shrimp Bob had and the N+8
shrimp John had by putting a + between N and N+8, like this:
N + N+8
and set that equal to 32:
N + N+8 = 32
Add the two N's together and get 2N
2N+8 = 32
Subtract 8 from both sides:
2N+8 = 32
-8 -8
---------
2N = 24
Divide both sides by 2:
N = 12
That's how many shrimp Bob had.
John had 8 more shrimp than Bob,
so John had 12+8 or 20 shrimp.
Answer: Bob had 12 shrimp and John had 20 shrimp.
Edwin