My question is: Jake and Penny are hunting snakes. Jake's snake is 12 inches longer than Jenny's snake. If the two snakes have a combined length of 70 inches, how long is Jake's snake? Your thoughts:
Let j be the length of Jake's snake and p be length of Penny's snake. We know that j + p = 70, and j = p + 12. We can substitute the second equation into the first equation to get p + 12 + p = 70. Combining like terms, we get 2p + 12 = 70. Subtracting 12 from both sides, we get 2p = 58. Dividing both sides by 2, we get p = 58 / 2 = 29 inches. Penny's snake is 29 inches. Substituting that length in to the equation j = p + 12, we get j = 29 inches + 12 inches = 41 inches. The final answer: 41.