Question

The cost of six hens and one duck at the university poultry farm is GH₵40. While four hens and three ducks cost GH₵36. What is the cost of each type of bird?

Answer 1

Answer:

Step-by-step explanation:

Let's call hens h and ducks d. The first algebraic equation says that 6 hens (6h) plus (+) 1 duck (1d) cost (=) 40.

The second algebraic equations says that 4 hens (4h) plus (+) 3 ducks (3d) cost (=) 36.

The system is

6h + 1d = 40

4h + 3d = 36

The best way to go about this is to solve it by substitution since we have a 1d in the first equation. We will solve that equation for d since that makes the most sense algebraically. Doing that,

1d = 40 - 6h.

Now that we know what d equals, we can sub it into the second equation where we see a d. In order,

4h + 3d = 36 becomes

4h + 3(40 - 6h) = 36 and then simplify. By substituting into the second equation we eliminated one of the variables. You can only have 1 unknown in a single equation, and now we do!

4h + 120 - 18h = 36 and

-14h = -84 so

h = 6.

That means that each hen costs $6. Since the cost of a duck is found in the bold print equation above, we will sub in a 6 for h to solve for d:

1d = 40 - 6(6) and

d = 40 - 36 so

d = 4.

That means that each duck costs $4.