There are 15 animals in the barn. Some are chickens and some are horses . There are 44 legs in all. How many of each animal are there?

Answer 1

Hi Cassidy,

Each chicken has 2 legs and each horse has 4 legs. There are 15 total chickens/horses.

c = number of chickens

h = number of horses

Thus, 2c + 4h = 44.

c + h = 15

Use substitution to solve for the missing variables.

c = 15 - h...thus, substitute 15- h in for c in the first equation.

2(15 - h) + 4h = 44

30 - 2h + 4h = 44

30 + 2h = 44

2h = 14

h = 7, thus c = 8 (for a total of 15 animals). There are 7 horses and 8 chickens.