Chickens in the yard

Question

Kali was chasing 10 chickens. She chased 7 into the chicken coop and then 4 of those ran out between her legs. After chasing 5 more chickens into the coop, one flew over her shoulder and three more stepped on her toes on their way back into the yard. Three more chickens escaped while she was shutting the door to the chicken coop. How many chickens ended up in the yard? Write an equation to show

Answer 1

Let's start with creating some variables:

Let:

Cy = Chickens in the yard.

Tc = Total Chickens

Cc = Chickens in the coop

So we can write that the chickens in the yard equal the total chickens minus the chickens in the coop, or:

Cy = Tc - Cc

Kali was chasing 10 chickens so let's assume the total number of chickens is 10.

Cy = 10 - Cc

Now the number of chickens in the coop can be calculated by using the story and every time adding or subtracting chickens from the coop. [She chased 7 into the chicken coop (+7) and then 4 of those ran out between her legs (-4). After chasing 5 more chickens into the coop (+5), one flew over her shoulder (-1) and three more stepped on her toes on their way back into the yard (-3). Three more chickens escaped while she was shutting the door to the chicken coop (-3).]

Cc is then (+7 -4 +5 -1 -3 -3), substituting gives:

Cy = 10 - Cc

Cy = 10 - (+7 -4 +5 -1 -3 -3)

I leave it to the reader to get the number of chickens in the yard (I got 9). This assumes that the chickens that Kali was chasing were all of the chickens in the yard. If there were others in the yard, not being chased, then the number goes up by that amount.