SOLUTION: Use POLYA'S FOUR STEP PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGY to solve the following problem. Make sure you specify each of the Polya's steps in your solution. The number of chickens and

Algebra ->  Customizable Word Problem Solvers  -> Misc -> SOLUTION: Use POLYA'S FOUR STEP PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGY to solve the following problem. Make sure you specify each of the Polya's steps in your solution. The number of chickens and      Log On

Ad: Over 600 Algebra Word Problems at edhelper.com


    

Question 1184591: Use POLYA'S FOUR STEP PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGY to solve the following problem. Make sure you specify each of the Polya's steps in your solution.

The number of chickens and cows in a farm totals 123. The total number of legs among them is 390. Determine how many chickens and cows are in the farm.
Found 2 solutions by josgarithmetic, ikleyn:
Answer by josgarithmetic(39613) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
p chickens
c cows
2 legs per chicken
4 legs per cow

Account for total animals: p%2Bc=123

Account for number of legs: 2p%2B4c=390

One could choose Elimination Method to solve the system.
system%28p%2Bc=123%2C2p%2B4c=390%29


system%28p%2Bc=123%2Cp%2B2c=195%29

E2-E1
c=195-123
highlight%28c=72%29

2E1-E2
2p%2B2c-p-2c=2%2A123-195
highlight%28p=51%29


You could arrange these steps to fit within your Polya format.

Answer by ikleyn(52747) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.
The number of chickens and cows in a farm totals 123. The total number of legs among them is 390.
Determine how many chickens and cows are in the farm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Let the number of chichen be x.

Then the number of cows is  (123-x).


There is no need to remind that each single chick has 2 legs, while a cow has 4 legs.


THEREFORE, an equation for x, presenting the number of legs, is


    2x + 4*(123-x) = 390.


From the equation,


    x = %28390-4%2A123%29%2F%282-4%29 = 51.


ANSWER.  51 chicken and the rest animals, 123-51 = 72, are the cows.


CHECK.   51*2 + 72*4 = 390 total legs.    ! Correct !

Solved.

--------------------

There are other methods solving this and similar problems.   See my lessons
    - Problem on animals at a farm
    - Problem on pills in containers
    - What type of problems are these?
in this site.