• What are you being asked to find? define your variables
We are being asked to find the number of goats and ducks that there might be in the farmhouse.
• What are you given?
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From the information given by the question, we know that there are as many as 12 animals and that they have as many as 34 legs.
• Create & solve a system
from the given information we can write two expressions, one for the total number of animals, which equals 12, and another for the number of legs, let's call x to the number of goats and y to the number of ducks.
We know that there are a total of 12 animals, this is the number of goats plus the number of ducks, then we can write the expression:
goats + ducks = 12
x + y = 12
0.
And we know that there are 34 legs since a duck has 2 legs and a goat has 4, the number of legs of all the ducks would be the number of ducks times 2 and the number of legs of all the goats is 4 times the number of goats, then we can express the equation:
goat's legs + duck's legs = 34
4x + 2y = 34
Then, the system of equations that we have to solve is:
1. x + y = 12
2. 4x + 2y = 34
Now let's solve the system of equations, by following these steps:
Solve for y from the first equation:
x+y=12
x-x+y=12-x
y=12-x
Replace the expression y=12-x into the second equation and find the value of x.
4x + 2y = 34
4x+2(12-x)=34
4x+2*12-2x=34
4x+24-2x=34
2x+24=34
2x+24-24=34-24
2x=10
2x/2=10/2
x=5
Now that we know that x equals 5, let's replace it into the expression y=12-x, to find the value of y:
y=12-x
y=12-5=7
Then, x equals 5 and y equals 7
• Explain your solution
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In the farmhouse could there be a total of 5 ducks and 7 goats
