So, to do that, first look at the symbol before the parenthesis.
In this case it's a -.
So when it's a -, reverse the symbol inside the parenthesis. (This is because if you don't you're subtracting 2x and then adding 8, when really you're subtracting both 2x and 8.)
Well, you have to write and solve an equation to find the length of T of Travis' rope. But here are the answers that I came up with. T = 9 Ft S = 23 Ft