Final answer:
To determine the number of chickens a farmer has with a total of 12 animals, cows and chickens combined, we need additional information. We can represent the cows as C and chickens as Ch and use the equation C + Ch = 12, but without specifics, we can't find an exact answer. The number of chickens could range from 0 to 12, depending on how many cows there are.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question asks how many chickens a farmer has if he has a total of 12 animals, which are only cows and chickens. This is a simple algebra problem where we use variables to represent the unknown quantities. Let's denote the number of cows as C and the number of chickens as Ch.
Since we have only two types of animals, we can create the following equation based on the total number of animals:
C + Ch = 12
Without additional information, such as the total number of legs, we cannot determine the exact numbers of cows and chickens. However, we can say that the number of chickens can be any number between 0 to 12, as long as when added to the number of cows, the sum is 12.
For example, if there are 7 cows, their must be 5 chickens to make the total 12 animals.