Question:
Latoya surveyed her friends to see how many pets they own. Her 6 friends have a total of 11 cats and birds. If there are a total of 36 legs how many cats and birds are there?
Answer:
The number of birds = 4
The number of cats = 7
Explanation:
Given:
Total number of cats and birds = 11
Total number of legs = 36
To Find:
The number of birds =?
The number of cats = ?
Solution:
Let the number of birds be x
the number of cats be y
Then,
x+y = 11------------------------(1)
We know that cats have 4 legs and birds have 2 legs, so
2(x) + 4(y) = 36-------------------(2)
from eq(1),
x=11-y-------------------------------(3)
Substituting (3) in (2)
2(11-y) + 4(y) = 36
(22-2y) + 4y = 36
22-2y + 4y = 36
22+ 2y = 36
2y=36-22
2y= 14
y= 7
Now substituting y=7 in eq(3),
x=11-7
x= 4