Girls, Cats, and Kittens

Date: 11/05/2007 at 17:05:04
From: Antoinette
Subject: a algebra question

One bus has 7 girls and each girl has one sack and each of the 
7 girls have 7 cats inside their 7 sacks and each cat has a litter 
of 7 kittens.  How many legs are on the bus?

Do you multiply each number together like 7*2*28*7*28*392*196?

Date: 11/05/2007 at 17:21:41
From: Doctor Ian
Subject: Re: a algebra question

Hi Antoinette,

You could use units to help you make sure you end up with a sensible
result.  Here's how to find the number of cats:

            1 sack   7 cats
  7 girls * ------ * ------ = 49 cats
            1 girl   1 sack

Here's how to find the number of kittens:

             7 kittens
   49 cats * --------- = 343 kittens
             1 cat

And you have four legs for EACH cat, and EACH kitten... and two legs
for each of the girls!  Plus, presumably, two for the driver. 

Does that make sense?  Let me know if you need more help.

- Doctor Ian, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/