A farm raises a total of 230 chickens and pigs. The number of legs of the animals on the farm totals 660. How many chickens and pigs do they have on the farm?

Answer 1

For this problem we will need to set up a system of equations to solve for the number of chickens and pigs. We can start by assigning some variables to the problem. Lets call the number of chickens "C" and the number of pigs "P".

We know that the total number of chickens and pigs is 230 so we can use that to set up our first equation:

C + P = 230

We also know there are is a total of 660 legs. If each chicken has two legs and each pig has four then we can use that information to come up with our second equation:

2C + 4P = 660

Now we have our system of equations:

C + P = 230

2C + 4P = 660

To solve this system we can start by rewriting the first equation in terms of P by moving C to the other side:

P = 230 - C

Now we can substitute this for P in our second equation:

2C + 4P = 660

2C + 4(230 - C) = 660

Simplify and solve for C

2C + 920 - 4C = 660, subtract 920 from both sides

2C - 4C = -260

-2C = -260, multiply both sides by -1

2C = 260

C = 130

Now we have solved for the number of chickens but we still need to find the number of pigs. To do that, lets plug in our answer for 'C' back into the first equation we made:

P + C = 230

P + 130 = 230, solve for P

P = 100

We have 100 pigs and 130 chickens.