During a consultation a medical assistant that half of his patients have diarrhea, 7 have constipation and only two have constipation and diarrhea, if each of the patient has at least one of the two types of illness, how many did he observed ?
Let's call the number of patients who have diarrhea "D" and the number of patients who have constipation "C". We know that:
D = 1/2 (total number of patients)
C = 7
2 patients have both constipation and diarrhea.
We also know that each patient has at least one of the two types of illness, so:
Total number of patients = D + C - 2
= 1/2 (total number of patients) + 7 - 2 (since we are subtracting the 2 patients who have both constipation and diarrhea)
Simplifying, we can multiply both sides by 2:
Total number of patients = total number of patients + 12
Subtracting "total number of patients" from both sides, we get:
12 = 0
This is a contradiction, so there must be no solution to this problem. Check to ensure that the numbers are correct and there isn't a mistake in the question.