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Question
The number of chickens and hogs in the barnyard add to 18.  They have a total of 50 legs. How many of each animal type are there?

Answer
Let C be the number of chickens and H be the number of hogs, C + H = 18.
The number of legs is 2C + 4H, so 2C + 4H = 50.

Taking twice the first equation and subtracting from the second gives
(2C + 4H) - (2C + 2H) = 50 - 2*18.  This gives 2H = 14, so H = 7, so we have 7 hogs.

Putting this together gives -2H = -14, so H = 7.
Since C + 7 = 18, C = 11.

Thus, total animals is 11+7 = 18 and total legs = 4(7) + 2(11) = 28 + 22 = 50.

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Scott A Wilson

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