All about flooble | fun stuff | Get a free chatterbox | Free JavaScript | Avatars    
perplexus dot info

Home > Numbers
Private Zoo and Menagerie (Posted on 2023-12-04) Difficulty: 3 of 5
Zachary has a private zoo. He has five groups of animals in his zoo: snakes, birds, mammals, insects, and spiders. Assume that, typically: animals have 1 head, snakes have 0 legs, birds have 2 legs, mammals have 4 legs, insects have 6 legs, and spiders have 8 legs. Zachary has some unusual animals in his zoo. He has: a snake with 3 heads, a bird with 2 heads, a mammal with 3 legs, an insect with 4 legs, and a spider with 7 legs.

1) There are a total of 100 heads and 376 legs.
2) Each group has a different quantity of animals.
3) The most populous group has 10 more members than the least populous group.
4) There are twice as many insect legs as there are bird legs.
5) There are as many snake heads as there are spider heads.

From the following information, determine how many of each group of animals that Zachary has in his menagerie.

See The Solution Submitted by K Sengupta    
Rating: 5.0000 (1 votes)

Comments: ( Back to comment list | You must be logged in to post comments.)
Solution Solution | Comment 1 of 5
There are 3 extra heads
There is a deficiency of 4 legs
Eliminating the 5 mutants, there are 92 heads, 376-16 = 360 legs
Including the mutants, but if you un-mutated them, there would be 97 heads and 380 legs.
There are 97 animals total 

There is a difference of 10 between most populous and least populous groups.  Let n be the number in the least populous group, n+10 in the most.  The other 3 are between n and n+10.
The extreme values of n are found by setting   
maxN + 3*maxN + maxN + 10 = 98   maxN = 88/5 = 17.6
and 
minN + 3*(minN+ 10) + minN + 10 = 98   minN = 58/5 = 11.6
So the size of the smallest group can be from {12,13,14,15,16,17}
And the size of the largest group can be from {22,23,24,25,26,27}

Not counting the mutants, the average legs per animal is 360/93 = 3.87
Number of spiders is 2 more than number of snakes.
Spiders cannot be 12 or 13; snakes cannot be 26 or 27

birdlegs = 2*birds  
insectlegs = 6*insects - 2
insectlegs = 2*birdlegs = 4*birds
6*insects - 2 = 4*birds
3*insects = 2*birds + 1
insects is odd, birds is 1 mod 3 

With the group size contraints, the group size of (insects,birds) is limited to
{(13,19),(15,22),(17,25)}


(snakes, birds, mammals, insects, spiders)  = (19, 25, 15, 17, 21)


       snk, brd, mam, ins, spi
number  19, 25, 15, 17, 21                      <---
heads   21, 26, 15, 17, 21    total heads 100
legs     0, 50, 59, 100, 167  total legs 376

----------
import numpy as np
answer = []
for insects in [13,15,17]:
    birds = int(1.5*insects - .5)
    for spiders in range(14,28):
        if spiders == insects or spiders == birds:
            continue
        snakes = spiders - 2
        if snakes == insects or snakes == birds:
            continue
        for mammals in range(12,28):
            if mammals == insects or  mammals == birds or  mammals == spiders or  mammals == snakes:
                continue
            # groupNums = [insects,birds,spiders,snakes,mammals]
            groupNums = [snakes, birds, mammals, insects, spiders]
            if max(groupNums) - min(groupNums) != 10:
                continue
            if sum(groupNums) != 97:
                continue
            legarray = np.multiply([0,2,4,6,8],[groupNums])
            legs = np.sum(legarray)
            if legs != 380:
                continue
            print(groupNums)
            answer = groupNums

  Posted by Larry on 2023-12-04 18:06:35
Please log in:
Login:
Password:
Remember me:
Sign up! | Forgot password


Search:
Search body:
Forums (0)
Newest Problems
Random Problem
FAQ | About This Site
Site Statistics
New Comments (10)
Unsolved Problems
Top Rated Problems
This month's top
Most Commented On

Chatterbox:
Copyright © 2002 - 2024 by Animus Pactum Consulting. All rights reserved. Privacy Information