A ship is transporting several cats and a crew (sailors, a cook, and a one-legged captain) to a nearby port. If these

[M7MBA]

A ship is transporting several cats and a crew (sailors, a cook, and a one-legged captain) to a nearby port. If these passengers combined have 15 heads and 41 legs, then how many cats is the ship transporting?

A. 3
B. 5
C. 6
D. 7
E. 8

Answer: C

Source: GMAT Club Tests

[Scott@TargetTestPrep]

A ship is transporting several cats and a crew (sailors, a cook, and a one-legged captain) to a nearby port. If these passengers combined have 15 heads and 41 legs, then how many cats is the ship transporting?

A. 3
B. 5
C. 6
D. 7
E. 8

Answer: C

Source: GMAT Club Tests

Solution:

In this question, we have an unknown number of cats and sailors. We can let x = the number of cats and y = the number of sailors. Therefore, excluding the cook and the one-legged captain, the total number of heads and legs they have are 13 and 38, respectively. We can create the equation:

x + y = 13

and

4x + 2y = 38

Subtracting twice equation 1 (i.e., 2x + 2y = 26) from equation 2, we have:

2x = 12

x = 6

Answer: C