Chickens+Horses=81 animals, and 272 legs, how many Chickens are there, and how many horses?

Question

Each Horse= 4 Legs

Each Chicken= 2 Legs

Answer 1

Let C be the number of chickens and let H be the number of horses.

 

C + h = 81, just like you said.

The total number of legs is 4h + 2c = 272

 

Solve using substitution, elimination/combinations, or by graphing. Here substitution may be the easiest - find one variable in one equation to solve for, then substitute that into the other equation.