Question

There are 52 birds and acts in the store. For the same animals Kia counts 138 legs. How many birds and cats are in the pet store

Answer 1

Let's represent birds by the letter x and cats by the letter y. Since birds have 2 legs, and cats have 4, we can express this as:

`138 = 2x + 4y`

`52 = x+y`

We can solve by substitution. Let's solve for x in the second equation:

`x = 52-y`

Replace every x in the first equation by that:

`138 = 2(52-y)+4y`

`138 = 104-2y+4y`

`138 = 104 + 2y`

`34 = 2y`

`y = 17`

Now, plug that in for y in second equation and solve for x:

`52 = x + 17`

`x = 35`

Since x was the number of birds and y was the number of cats in the store, there are 35 birds and 17 cats in the store.