Question

Mikey works after school and on Sundays at the the zoo-billie pet store. Today he fed all of the animals just before closing time. He fed thee times as many fish as snakes, 30 more snakes than kittens and 10 fewer kittens than puppies. If he fed 190 animals in all, how many puppies did Mikey feed? Show all work.

Answer 1

By setting up equations to represent the relationships between the numbers of fish, snakes, kittens, and puppies that Mikey fed, we discover that he fed 20 puppies in total.

Step-by-step explanation:

Problem Solving: Algebraic Approach

Let's use algebra to solve this word problem. First, we define variables for the number of each kind of animal that Mikey fed. Let:

s = the number of snakes

f = the number of fish

k = the number of kittens

p = the number of puppies

According to the problem, we know the following relationships:

f = 3s (three times as many fish as snakes)

s = k + 30 (30 more snakes than kittens)

k = p - 10 (10 fewer kittens than puppies)

s + f + k + p = 190 (the total number of animals fed)

By substituting the first three equations into the fourth, we get:

s + 3s + (s - 30) + (s - 30 + 10) = 190

Combining like terms, we then have:

6s - 50 = 190

Now, we solve for s:

6s = 240

s = 40

Having the value for s (snakes), we can now find the number of puppies Mikey fed. Since

k = s - 30

k = 40 - 30

k = 10

And because k is the number of kittens,

p = k + 10

p = 10 + 10

p = 20

So, Mikey fed 20 puppies.