The Mystery of Shawna and Kai at the Pet Store

How many birds and cats are in the pet store?

Answer:

35 birds and 17 cats

Shawna and Kai both work at the same pet store, where they encountered a puzzling situation. On Monday, Shawna counted a total of 52 birds and cats in the store. Meanwhile, Kai noted that the same animals had a total of 138 legs. How could they figure out the number of birds and cats in the pet store based on this information?

To solve this mystery, we can set up a system of equations. Let's denote the number of birds as B and the number of cats as C. From Shawna's count, we know that B + C = 52. Furthermore, we can deduce from the total number of legs counted by Kai that 2B + 4C = 138. By solving these equations simultaneously, we can find the values of B and C.

First, we can simplify the equation B + C = 52 to B = 52 - C. Next, we substitute this expression for B into the equation 2B + 4C = 138. After performing the necessary algebraic manipulations, we find that the number of cats, C, is 17. By substituting this value back into the equation B + C = 52, we can determine that there are 35 birds in the pet store.

Therefore, the pet store is home to 35 birds and 17 cats, solving the mystery of Shawna and Kai's counting conundrum.