Question

A zoo has an equal number of African elephants and Asian elephants. The African elephants cost £11 per day to feed and the Asian elephants cost £9 per day to feed. The total daily bill for feeding all of the zoo's elephants is £1000. How many elephants does the zoo have?

Answer 1

The zoo has 50 African elephants and 50 Asian elephants which means that there are 100 elephants.

Explanation:

From the information provided, you can say that the result of adding up the African elephants cost to feed per day for the number of African elephants plus the Asian elephants cost to feed per day for the number of Asian elephants would be equal to £1000, which can be expressed as:

11x+9y=1000, where:

x is the number of African elephants

y is the number of Asian elephants

Now, as the statement indicates that the zoo has an equal number of African elephants and Asian elephants, this means that x=y and you can replace y with x and solve for x:

11x+9x=1000

20x=1000

x=1000/20

x=50

According to this and considering that the zoo has an equal number of African elephants and Asian elephants, the answer is that the zoo has 50 African elephants and 50 Asian elephants which means that there are 100 elephants.