Question

A huge donkey and a very powerful and giant horse were carrying some bales of cloth. The

donkey said to the horse, "If you give me one of your bales, I shall carry as half as you." "If you
give me one of yours," replied the horse, "I will be carrying as three times as you." How many
bales was each animal carrying originally (started with)? Please use variables, set up equations
and solve them.

Answer 1

To solve the problem, assign variables D and H to represent the number of bales carried by the donkey and the horse, respectively, then create a system of equations based on the information provided and solve for D and H.

Step-by-step explanation:

The problem presented involves solving a system of equations. Let us denote the number of bales that the donkey is originally carrying as D and the number of bales that the horse is originally carrying as H.

We have two key pieces of information that will help us set up our equations:

• If the horse gives one bale to the donkey, then the donkey would be carrying half as much as what the horse would be carrying. This can be expressed as: D + 1 = 1/2(H - 1)
• If the donkey gives one bale to the horse, the horse would then be carrying three times as much as the donkey. This can be expressed as: H + 1 = 3(D - 1)

Solving this system of equations will give us the original amount of bales each animal was carrying.

Answer 2

Step-by-step explanation:

You can put this solution on YOUR website!

x carried by horse

y carried by donkey

y+1 = (1/2)(x-1) multiplied by 2

2y + 2 = x - 1 : x = 2y + 3

x+1 = 3(y-1)

2y + 3 + 1 = 3y - 3

4 + 3 = 3y - 2y

y=7 carrid by the donkey

x=17 carried by horse