I need help on a word problem because it doesn't have enough numbers to work with. So here it is: There are 19 animals in the barn. Some are geese and some are oxen. There are 56 legs in all. How many of each animal are there?
So, for the first equation, I got x + y = 19. The second equation I can't make because there are no numbers that I can pair with the x and y variables, so no coefficients, but I'm thinking maybe 4x + 4y = 56 for the legs.
Please help me!!! I'm not sure what the steps involve in making the equation. Just the equations, I'm sure I can handle solving it.
Since geese only have 2 legs, how about 2x + 4y?
OOPS I OVERLOOKED THAT MY BAD. Thanks, so I'm assuming that my first equation was right?
Yes.
Thank you Ms. Sue!
You're welcome.
To solve this word problem, you've correctly identified that you need two equations to find the values of x (the number of geese) and y (the number of oxen). Let's create the second equation using the information given.
The total number of legs across all animals can be calculated by multiplying the number of geese (x) by 2 (since geese have two legs) and the number of oxen (y) by 4 (since oxen have four legs). So, the second equation can be written as:
2x + 4y = 56
Let's break it down further:
- The 2x term represents the number of legs contributed by the geese (2 legs per goose).
- The 4y term represents the number of legs contributed by the oxen (4 legs per ox).
- The sum of these two terms, 2x + 4y, equals the total number of legs, which is 56.
Now you have a system of equations:
x + y = 19
2x + 4y = 56
You can solve this system using various methods, such as substitution or elimination, to find the values of x and y.