Well, you know that cows have four legs and chickens have 2 legs. (Unless they somehow got mutated...
)
Let's used the variable 'x' for the number of cows and 'y' for the number of chickens.
I think there would be 2 equations here.
There are 40 cows and chickens, so 1 equation would be:
x+y=40
Here is the second equation.
Cows have 4 legs. Chickens have 2 legs. There are 100 legs in all.
So... you would have to make another equation.
4x + 2y = 100.
To solve, you would need to use both of these equations.
I used the substitution method because it is easier to explain by typing... :)
Look at the first equation. x+y=40.
Subtract y to both sides and get x=40-y.
Now, look at the second equation. 4x + 2y = 100.
We can substitute x for 40 -y because x=40-y. We figured that out from the first equation.
Let's calculate
4(40-y) + 2y =100.
Distribute:
160-4y+2y=100
Simplify:
160-2y=100
Subtract 160 to both sides:
-2y=-60
Divide both sides by -2:
y=30
So we finally got y. Let's try to find x. Remember that x=40-y. Substitute 30 for y:
x=40-30
x=10
Cows were x and chickens were y.
There were 10 cows and 30 chickens in total.
That's a lot of meat...
