Pat S.

asked • 03/19/17

Ostriches are $10, emus are $5 and puffins are $.5 See details below.

At an exotic bird market, ostriches are $10, emus are $5 and puffins are $.50  You cannot purchase fractional birds.  How many ostriches, emus and puffins can be bought with $100 dollars to make 100 birds?
 
I am looking for algebra equations to solve.  
10 O + 5 E + .5 P = 100.
O + E + P = 100
Then what?

Pat S.

Please see edited question.  I left out critical information.
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03/19/17

Kenneth S.

I'M NOT SURPRISED THAT THE QUESTION NEEDED MORE PARTICULARS.
Observe: Letter O is a poor choice of variable name (closely resembles zero).
NOW you have two equations in three unknowns, plus the restriction that each variable must be a whole number.
 
There will be MANY solutions. It would be best to tabulate them in a table. It's a process of elimination, basically.  (This kind of situation is called Diophantine equations.) I don't know of any easy, elegant way to do this.
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03/19/17

Pat S.

Thank you.  
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03/19/17

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