Chris have 5 cats and dogs, how many cats does he have?

Question

I'm confused because I don't know if he has 5 cats and 5 dogs Or 5 animals all together.

Answer 1

The answer can't be determined.

 

If he has 5 pets (cats and dogs), we need to know how many cats he has to figure out how many dogs he has. Or we need to know how many dogs he has to figure out how many cats he has.

 

If we believe the sentence--that he has BOTH cats and dogs, and he has 5 pets total, then he's got to have between 1 and 4 of each. So, with the information provided, Chris has anywhere between 1 and 4 cats. But Mark's answer leads you in the right direction. Check the problem again and see if there's more to the sentence than what you provided.

 

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

I think they are looking for a simple algebra equation here, and I think the 5 means all the animals together.

 

So it would be 5 animals, minus the number of dogs ("d") equals the number of cats ("c"), and your equation would be:

 

5 - d = c

 

The idea then would be to try different values for d and see what answer you come up with for c. Or, put in different values for c and see what you come up with for d. Here's a little chart for an example.

 

5        - d         = c

5        - 3            ?

 

5         - 1            ?

 

5         - ?            1

 

5          - 4           ?

 

5          - ?           3

 

etc.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Matt in New York

Answer 3

From what is given, the number of cats and dogs cannot be determined. Check to see if another sentence is in the problem.