Answer:
There are 16 cows and 32 chickens on the farm.
Step-by-step explanation:
First, each cow and chicken has one head each, obviously. That means that the 48 corresponds to the total number of animals on Farmer John's farm. Since chickens have 2 legs and cows have 4 legs, that means that the 128 represents the separate amount of cows and chickens there are. We can let c equal the number of cows, and h equal the number of chickens. We know that the total number of animals is 48, so c + h = 48. We know that for each cow, there are 4 legs, and for each chicken there are 2 legs, so 4c + 2h = 128.
Now, we can solve by substitution. Multiplying the first equation by 2, we have 2c + 2h = 96. We can subtract this from the second equation to get 2c = 32, and c = 16. That means there are 16 cows on the farm, and since c + h = 48, there are 48 - 16 = 32 chickens on the farm.
Step-by-step explanation: