SOLUTION: Hello. I am not sure how to do this problem. There was a pet photo contest. 7 of the photos entered were guinea pigs. 1/2 were photos of cats, and 1/3 were photos of dogs. How

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Question 517902: Hello. I am not sure how to do this problem.
There was a pet photo contest. 7 of the photos entered were guinea pigs. 1/2 were photos of cats, and 1/3 were photos of dogs. How many photos were entered in the contest? How many photos were of cats? how many were of dogs?
Thanks!

Answer by solver91311(24713) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!


In order to do this problem you have to make an assumption that you really have no right to make, and that is you must assume that the problem actually has a solution. Not every problem has a solution, and just because your math teacher gave you this one doesn't necessarily alter that fact.

Be that as it may, assuming that this is a solvable problem leads you to the conclusion that there were exactly three types of animals in this pet photo contest and no more. If there were more, then you couldn't solve the problem.

Let represent the total number of photos in the contest. Then are of cats, are of dogs, and 7 are of guinea pigs. So:



Solve for . Then calculate and

John

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