document.write( "Question 826559: A boy had a box containing a total of 8 spiders and beetles. He counted 54 legs altogether. Find how many of each were in the box (spiders have 8 legs and beetles have 6 legs). \n" ); document.write( "

Algebra.Com's Answer #498159 by Edwin McCravy(20055) $\"\"$ $\"About$

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A boy had a box containing a total of 8 spiders and beetles. He counted 54 legs altogether. Find how many of each were in the box (spiders have 8 legs and beetles have 6 legs).
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document.write( " s+ b =  8\r\n" );
document.write( "8s+6b = 54\r\n" );
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document.write( "You can solve that system and get the answer.  Or you can do it without \r\n" );
document.write( "algebra this way:\r\n" );
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document.write( "A beetle has 3 pairs of legs, and a spider has 3 pairs plus an extra pair.  54\r\n" );
document.write( "legs is 27 pairs of legs.  All 8 critters have 3 pairs, and that accounts for 24\r\n" );
document.write( "pair, so the extra 3 pairs belong to the spiders. So there are 3 spiders, and\r\n" );
document.write( "the other 5 are beetles. \r\n" );
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document.write( "Edwin

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