last month, Darrel and Sha'quinn volunteered at the animal shelter. Darrel volunteered 3 hours less than Sha'quinn. together they volunteered for 17 hours. use the variable s to represent the number of hours Sha'quinn volunteered. how many hours did Darrel volunteer?
Let D be the number of hours Darrel volunteered.
We know that Sha'quinn volunteered s hours and Darrel volunteered s - 3 hours.
Together they volunteered s + s - 3 = 17 hours.
Combining like terms, we get 2s - 3 = 17
Adding 3 to both sides, we get 2s = 20
Dividing both sides by 2, we get s = 10
Since Darrel volunteered 3 hours less than Sha'quinn, Darrel volunteered 10 - 3 = <<10-3=7>>7 hours. Answer: \boxed{7}.