An animal shelter has 5 cats for every 2 dogs. If there are 70 animals in the shelter, how many cats are there?

Answer 1

First, look at 5 cats for every 2 dogs as a ratio: 5:2. Now, let's say, there are 5 cats and 2 dogs total in a shelter, this means there are 7 animals total. In this case, 5/7 of the 7 total animals would be cats, and 2/7 of the 7 total animals would be dogs. So, 5/7 of 7 (which is 5/7 multiplied by 7) equals 5 cats, and 2/7 of 7 (which is 2/7 multiplied by 7) equals 2 dogs.

Now, let's consider what the actual question is asking, in which there are 70 animals in total at the shelter. In this case, use the same ratio given in the first sentence of the problem to find the amounts of cats and dogs, but this time in the 70 animal shelter, rather than the 7 animal shelter we examined. So, to find the amount of cats, multiply 5/7 by 70 and you will get 50 cats. As for the amount of dogs, multiply 2/7 by 70, giving you 20 dogs.

Therefore, there are 50 cats in this shelter.