document.write( "Question 1038295: A farmer bought a number of pigs for $145. However, 8 of them died before he could sell the rest at a profit of 2 per pig. His total profit was $2. How many pigs did he originally buy? \n" ); document.write( "

Algebra.Com's Answer #652996 by Edwin McCravy(20056) $\"\"$ $\"About$

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A farmer bought a number of pigs for $145.

He bought  pigs.\r\n" );
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document.write( "Each cost him  dollars

...8 of them died...

So he only had n-8 live pigs to sell.

...sell the rest at a profit of $2 per pig.

He sold the  live pigs for  dollars each.\r\n" );
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document.write( "So he sold all  live pigs for  dollars, \r\n" );
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document.write( "and so his total profit on all the pigs living or dead was\r\n" );
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His total profit was $2.

We set those equal:\r\n" );
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document.write( "Multiply through by n\r\n" );
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document.write( "Divide through by 2:\r\n" );
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document.write( "rearrange in descending powers:\r\n" );
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document.write( "He had 29 pigs to begin with.\r\n" );
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document.write( "He bought 29 pigs for $145.\r\n" );
document.write( "So he paid $5 per pig.\r\n" );
document.write( "8 pigs died.\r\n" );
document.write( "He had 21 pigs left.\r\n" );
document.write( "He made a profit of $2 on each pig sold.\r\n" );
document.write( "So he sold each pig for $7\r\n" );
document.write( "He took in 21 times $7 or $147.\r\n" );
document.write( "He paid $149 for all the pigs living or dead.\r\n" );
document.write( "He made $149-$147=$2 profit total. \r\n" );
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document.write( "So 29 is correct.  He bought 29 pigs.\r\n" );
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document.write( "Edwin

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