Question 1049138
Bob had N shrimp.
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Then we read this:
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John had 8 more shrimp than Bob
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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:
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all together they had 32 shrimp.
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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
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2N   = 24

Divide both sides by 2:

{{{2N/2}}}{{{""=""}}}{{{24/2}}}

N = 12

That's how many shrimp Bob had.
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John had 8 more shrimp than Bob,
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so John had 12+8 or 20 shrimp.

Answer: Bob had 12 shrimp and John had 20 shrimp.

Edwin</pre>