Question

Algebra word problem. What are the steps to solving this problem?

During a meal of ants and spiders, a snake ate a total of 80 legs. He ate 3 more spiders than ants. How many spiders did he eat? How many ants did he eat?

Answer 1

7 spiders, 4 ants.

Answer 2

I guess first you should tell me how many legs ants and spiders each have.

Answer 3

>_> Luke. Why do you keep giving out answers? You can obviously do the math. Let the asker try it out for a change.

Answer 4

We both know most don't want the work. They just ignore it and wait for the answer.

Answer 5

It doesn't matter what they want. They have to learn it. Otherwise, you're just doing people's homework for free. Which is really dumb considering people pay for that sort of thing.

Answer 6

I'm willing to do that for free

Answer 7

If they ask "How do you do it?" after I give the answer, i'll explain.

Answer 8

I'm looking for a way to solve it. I don't just want answers. Thanks.
I knew we could guess and check, but I wanted to know if there was another way.