Question

1. a wildlife reserve had 8 elephant calves born during the summer and now has 31 total elephants. how many elephants were in the reserve before summer began? x= 10. farmer jones has 20 hens. each hen laid 6 eggs, but some eggs cracked. at the end of the day farmer jones had 95 eggs, how many eggs cracked?

Explanation:

Step1: Define pre-summer elephant count

Let $x$ = number of elephants before summer.

Step2: Set up total elephant equation

$x + 8 = 31$

Step3: Solve for pre-summer elephants

$x = 31 - 8 = 23$

Step4: Calculate total eggs laid

Total laid = $20 \times 6 = 120$

Step5: Set up cracked eggs equation

Let $y$ = number of cracked eggs.
$120 - y = 95$

Step6: Solve for cracked eggs

$y = 120 - 95 = 25$

Answer:

1. Number of elephants before summer: 23
2. Number of cracked eggs: 25