chickens, cows and sheep

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chickens, cows and sheep

by uptowngirl92 » Thu Sep 17, 2009 4:56 am
A farm has chickens, cows and sheep with three times the number of chickens and cows, than there are sheep. If there are more cows present than chicken or sheep and together, cows and chickens have a total of 100 feet and heads, how many sheep are at the farm?

5
8
10
14
17
Source: — Problem Solving |

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by xcusemeplz2009 » Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:00 am
IMO c
chic=x;cow=y;sheep=z
eqn 1.... x+y=3z
eqn 2.....2x+4y=100 (feet- for chick 2 and cow 4)
eqn3 y> x,z

from eqn 2 x+2y=50( to solve this we need some hit and tral..we have to keep in mind y> x ; x+2y has to be div by 5 or 10)=> y=20,x=10, from eqn 1 z=10

OA pls
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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:41 am
xcusemeplz2009 wrote:IMO c
chic=x;cow=y;sheep=z
eqn 1.... x+y=3z
eqn 2.....2x+4y=100 (feet- for chick 2 and cow 4)
eqn3 y> x,z

from eqn 2 x+2y=50( to solve this we need some hit and tral..we have to keep in mind y> x ; x+2y has to be div by 5 or 10)=> y=20,x=10, from eqn 1 z=10

OA pls
All of your chicken and cows are headless! The horror! :shock:

(Although I'm sure some evil genius is working on genetically modified headless chickens as we speak.)

100 is the total of heads and feet for chickens and cows, so there are actually 3/chicken and 5/cow (by the way, on the real GMAT you're not required to know any farm animal anatomy).

So:

co + ch = 3sh

5co + 3ch = 100

co > ch; co > sh

At this point we can do some trial and error, knowing that the number of chickens has to be a multiple of 5 to get that "100" total.

5 chickens (15 chicken head/feet) would mean we need 85/5 = 17 cows. 5+17 isn't a multiple of 3, so bzzt.

10 chickens (30 chicken head/feet) would mean we need 70/5 = 14 cows. 10+14 = 24, which is a multple of 3... yay! 24/3 = 8 sheep, choose (B).

Just to play:

15 chickens (45 chicken head/feet) would mean we need 55/5 = 11 cows. We now have more chickens than cows, which violates our rules (and leads to chaos on the farm), so we don't have to worry about any other possibilities.
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by viju9162 » Fri Sep 18, 2009 12:32 am
Thanks Stuart for wonderful explanation
"Native of" is used for a individual while "Native to" is used for a large group

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by xcusemeplz2009 » Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:31 am
Stuart Kovinsky wrote:
xcusemeplz2009 wrote:IMO c
chic=x;cow=y;sheep=z
eqn 1.... x+y=3z
eqn 2.....2x+4y=100 (feet- for chick 2 and cow 4)
eqn3 y> x,z

from eqn 2 x+2y=50( to solve this we need some hit and tral..we have to keep in mind y> x ; x+2y has to be div by 5 or 10)=> y=20,x=10, from eqn 1 z=10

OA pls
All of your chicken and cows are headless! The horror! :shock:

(Although I'm sure some evil genius is working on genetically modified headless chickens as we speak.)

100 is the total of heads and feet for chickens and cows, so there are actually 3/chicken and 5/cow (by the way, on the real GMAT you're not required to know any farm animal anatomy).

So:

co + ch = 3sh

5co + 3ch = 100

co > ch; co > sh

At this point we can do some trial and error, knowing that the number of chickens has to be a multiple of 5 to get that "100" total.

5 chickens (15 chicken head/feet) would mean we need 85/5 = 17 cows. 5+17 isn't a multiple of 3, so bzzt.

10 chickens (30 chicken head/feet) would mean we need 70/5 = 14 cows. 10+14 = 24, which is a multple of 3... yay! 24/3 = 8 sheep, choose (B).

Just to play:

15 chickens (45 chicken head/feet) would mean we need 55/5 = 11 cows. We now have more chickens than cows, which violates our rules (and leads to chaos on the farm), so we don't have to worry about any other possibilities.
oh man what a blunder :?: .....
thanx stuart for correcting the error.... :D .
:D :D :D
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by teal » Sat Aug 27, 2011 10:20 am
"100 is the total of heads and feet for chickens and cows, so there are actually 3/chicken and 5/cow (by the way, on the real GMAT you're not required to know any farm animal anatomy)."

How do you come up with the above logic under heavy duty stressful exam conditions...?
Can you please explain me how did you come up with the above logic? Both Chic and co can be multiples of 10 instead and still the relation can hold good.

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by navami » Mon Aug 29, 2011 12:59 pm
Chicke = C
Sheep = S
Cow = Co

(c + Co) = 3 S ---> (1)

Co > C / S ---> (2)

Co-Head + Co-Feet + C-Head + C-Feet = 100 ---> (3)

S = ??? ---> Question
from equation (3)
(1+4)x No Of Co + (1 + 2)x No Of C = 100
5 Co + 3 C = 100 --->(4)

Combining equation (4) and (1)

2Co + 9S = 100
Now among the ans choice only S = 8 satisfy the conditions
This time no looking back!!!
Navami

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by jainpiyushjain » Mon Jan 21, 2013 9:07 pm
I am finding a hard time comprehending and converting the below statement into an equation.

There are three times the number of chickens and cows than sheep.

Can someone please explain a manner in which I should read this particular sentence or similar sentences in future.

Thank you
Last edited by jainpiyushjain on Mon Jan 21, 2013 9:49 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Mon Jan 21, 2013 9:47 pm
jainpiyushjain wrote:I am finding a hard time comprehending and converting the below statement into an equation.

There are three times the number of chickens and cows than sheep.

Can someone please a manner in which I should read this particular sentence or similar sentences in future.

Thank you
I can certainly see how that kind of language can be confusing.

Here are some translations:

There are three times the number of chickens and cows than sheep.
I'm not a big fan of this sentence. I'd prefer to write: The number of chickens and cows is 3 times the number of sheep.
The number of chickens and cows = 3(number of sheep)

The number of X is N times the number of Y.
X = NY

There are K times as many X as Y.
X = KY

There are K times as many X as there are Y.
X = KY

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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