Question

A zoo keeper counted the heads of the animals in a zoo and found it to be 80. When he counted the legs of the animals he found it to be 260. If the zoo had either pigeons or horses, how many horses are there in the zoo.

Answer 1

let x be the no of pigeons and y be the no of horses 
as pigeons have 2 and horses have 4 legs
then ATQ    
x+y=80   and
2x+4y=260
solve this by elimination method 
there are 50 horses and 30 pigeons

Answer 2

Given:

The number of heads of the animals in a zoo=80

The number of legs of the animals=260

To find:

The number of horses in the zoo

Solution:

The number of horses in the zoo is 50.

We can find the number by following the given steps-

We know that the number of horses can be calculated by making equations and solving them

Let the number of pigeons in the zoo be x and the number of horses is y.

The total number of animals in the zoo=Number of pigeons+ number of horses

=x+y

We are given that the total number of animals in the zoo is 80.

So, x+y=80 (1)

Now, a pigeon has two legs and a horse has four legs.

The total number of legs of animals in the zoo=260

the total number of legs=Number of legs of pigeons+number of legs of horses

=2x+4y

So, 2x+4y=260 (2)

We will solve the two equations,

2x+2y=160

2x+4y=260

On subtracting, we get

2y=100

y=50

The number of horses, y=50

Therefore, the number of horses in the zoo is 50.