SOLUTION: A farmer has cows and chickens. He only sees 50 legs and 18 heads. How many are cows and howmany are chickens

Question 486098: A farmer has cows and chickens. He only sees 50 legs and 18 heads. How many are cows and howmany are chickens
Answer by MathTherapy(10552) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
A farmer has cows and chickens. He only sees 50 legs and 18 heads. How many are cows and howmany are chickens

Let the amount of cows be W, and the amount of chickens C
Then head count = W + C = 18
Leg-count = 4W + 2C = 50
We therefore have the following simultaneous equations:

W + C = 18 -------- eq (i)
4W + 2C = 50 ------- eq (ii)
-2W - 2C = - 36 -------- eq (iii) ---- Multiplying eq (i) by - 2
2W = 14 ------- Adding eqs (ii) & (iii)

Substituting 7 for W in eq (i), we have: 7 + C = 18

There are cows, and chickens.

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Check
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Head count: cows + chickens = 7 + 11 = 18

Leg count: 7 cows + 11 chickens = 28 (7 * 4) + 22 (11 * 2) = 50
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