Question

You are on a safari and pass by some hippos and birds (the kind

that hang out on top of the hippos). You see a total of 42 animals ane
114 legs. how many of each animal were there?

Answer 1

• 15 hippos
• 27 birds

Explanation:

You have a total of 114 legs among hippos and birds, of which there are a total of 42. You want the number of each kind of animal.

Setup

Let h represent the number of hippos. Then 42-h is the number of birds, and the total number of legs is ...

4h +2(42 -h) = 114

Solution

Simplifying the equation gives ...

2h +84 = 114

2h = 30 . . . . . . subtract 84

h = 15 . . . . . . . . number of hippos

42 -h = 27 . . . . number of birds

There were 15 hippos and 27 birds.