Cattle Puzzle answer

Farmer Jones paid $150 for one cow and $50 for the other. He sold them for $210, clearing 5 per cent.

This puzzle makes no pretense at context. It is not even pseudocontext, yet it is a excellent use for algebraic reasoning and guess and check, or systems of equations if you were so minded. It is interesting to me to think that Loyd's Puzzles (ca 1910) were published in the newspaper for the common man, for the farmer, for the factory worker, for the clerk, for the uneducated, for everyone - as challenges.

Math isn't fun. It's satisfying.

1.1x + .90y = 210
1.05( x + y) = 210 ==>> x + y = 200 ==>> x = 200 - y

1.1(200-y) + .9y = 210
220 - 1.1y + .9y = 210
-.2y = -10
y = 50
x = 150

return to the Cattle Puzzle.