Mike is feeding the birds at the park. He counts out the seeds as he throws them. He throws 20 seeds to the birds on the left. He throws twice as much to the bigger group of birds on the right. Some more birds flutter over to join the others for lunch and Mike throws 30 more seeds for them. If Mike has 30 seeds left to feed the last of the birds, how many seeds did Mike start with? Give me reasons, before answering the question
Mike started by throwing 20 seeds to the birds and then threw twice as many, 20 + 20(2) = 20 + 40. That totals to 20 + 40 = 60 seeds. He also threw 30 other seeds and had 30 left over, which means he started with 60 + 30 + 30 = 120 seeds. So the final answer is 120.