I am in my first year of algebra and struggling. I have a word problem I don't even know where to start

Question

The question is..The pier on a dock was 550ft long.  A shark bit off a piece.  The remaining dock was 20ft more than 3 times the sharks piece.  How long was each piece?

Answer 1

550 = 3x + 20 Subtract 20 from both sides. Divide by 3 and you get 176.7 ft

Answer 2

(2)+(3)+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2

Answer 3

The equation for this porblem is:

550 - x = 20 + 3x (Left side of equation is original length of pier minus shark piece.  Right side is length of remaining dock plus 3 times the shark piece.)

subtract 20 from both sides:

520 - x = 3x

add x on both sides:

520 = 4x

divide by 4:

x = 130

So the piece the shark bit off was 130 ft.

Answer 4

All math subject