Wo snails are 338 centimeters apart. they crawl toward each other at rates that differ by 3 cm/min. after 26 minutes, they meet. how fast is each snail crawling?

Because the snails are moving for 26 minutes you want to find out how fast they are moving a minute. So I used x to represent how many cm the snails will be moving. 26x represents one snail and 26 (x-3) represents the snails that moves 3 minutes slower than the other snail.Since the snail moved 3 minutes slower each minute it's very important that you multiply the 26 by -3 as well as the x. Multiplying the 26 by -3 shows that the snail moved 3 cm slower each minute as opposed to just 3 cm slower in total. I set the equation 26x+26(x-3)= to 338. 338 represents how many miles the snails traveled in total to get to each other.
26

26x+26x-78=338
52x-78=338
+78=+78
__=__
52x = 416
__ __
52 52
x = 8

So the first snail moves at 8 cm a min and the second x-3= 5 cm a min.

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So if the first snail moves at 8 cm a minute for 26 minutes. 8×26= 206 cm is how far it gets before the second snail moving at 5 cm a minute with 5×26=150 cm being how far it gets meet up the other snail.