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Solving Word Problems with Systems of Equations at a Glance


The best way to learn how to solve a word problem is to do it. Same goes for freestyle swimming, riding a bike, or writing a book about the ideological origins of the American Revolution. Okay, actually the last one could benefit from some preliminary research. You may not want to just dive in on that one.

We've already done the translation for each of the exercises in this section, so don't start claiming "déjà vu" if they seem familiar. It can't hurt to go through them again and solve them this time, so head on over to the "Exercises" section on the left side of this page. You've got this.

Exercise 1

Solve the following word problem:

A forest inhabited only by borogoves and mome raths contains eighty-two creatures. Borogoves are two-legged animals, while a mome rath has four legs. If the forest contains a total of 234 legs, how many borogoves and how many mome raths live in the forest?