I am the owner of a pet store. If I put in one canary per cage, I have one bird too many. If I put in two canaries per cage, I have one cage too many. How many cages and canaries do I have?
Answer
4 birds and 3 cages
Solution:
let x = the number of canaries and y = the number of cages. You can set up two equations using the two situations given.
First, if there is one canary per cage, then there is 1 cage too many (in other words, there is one more bird than cages): x – y = 1
Second, if there are two canaries per cage, then there is 1 cage too many (in other words, there is one more cage than half the number of canaries): y – x/2 = 1
Solve the two equations to get x = 4 and y = 3.
