there are 49 dogs signed up for the dog show. there are 36 more small dogs than large dogs. how many small dogs are signed up for the dog show?

Okay, so total dogs are 49.
So we know if x=large dogs and y=small dogs, then x+y=49.
Next we are told that there are 36 MORE small dogs than large dogs. We can take that more meaning addition, and x being our value for large dogs. So y=x+36.
After that we now know what value we can plug in for y. So x+x+36=49.
We can then simplify it to 2x+36=49.
Subtracting the 36 from both sides, leaves you with 2x=13.
Followed by dividing both sides by 2, gives you x=6.5. Or 6.5 large dogs.
Now we can plug this into our formula for the small dogs (y=x+36) to give us y=6.5+36, which simplifies to y=42.5. Or 42.5 small dogs. Which is our answer.
We can double check it by adding the small and large dogs together, 6.5+42.5, which gives us 49, our total entries.