Mariel is a dog walker. While walking her pack of dogs, she gets tangled up in the leashes of another dog walker and their 3 dogs. There are 36 legs tangled up in leashes. How many dogs is Mariel walking?
Thoughts? Step-by-step reasoning:
There are 2 dog walkers and they each have 2 legs so that's 2 * 2 = 4 legs. The other dog walker is walking 3 dogs that each have 4 legs so that's 3 * 4 = 12 legs. The dog walkers have 4 legs and the other dogs have 12 legs for a total of 4 + 12 = 16 legs. There are 36 legs total and 16 belong to the dog walkers and 3 dogs so that leaves 36 - 16 = 20 legs. Dogs have 4 legs and there are 20 legs so Mariel is walking 20 / 4 = 5 dogs.
Thus, the answer is 5.