Question

An animal shelter spends 5.50 per day to care for each bird and 8.50 per Day to care for each cat and a notice that the shelter spent 291.50 caring for birds and cats on Thursday and I found a record showing that there were a total of 41 birds and cats on Thursday how many birds were at the shelter on Thursday

Answer 1

19 birds

Explanation:

First, I wrote my two equations:

5.5x +8.5y = 291.5

x + y = 41

Next, I got the variable y by itself in the second equation. Subtract x to get y = -x + 41. Then, I substituted what y equaled into the first equation. It should look like this: 5.5x + 8.5(-x+41) = 291.5. Distribute 8.5 to get 5.5x -8.5x + 348.5 = 291.5. Subtract 5.5x and 8.5x to get -3x. It should look like this: -3x + 348.5= 291.5. Subtract 348.5 from 291.5 to get -57. Now, you should have -3x = -57. Divide -3 from both sides, to get x = 19. So, there are 19 birds. If you want to go even further, 41-19= 22, which means there are 22 cats. Hope this helped!