One day, a person went to a horse racing area. Instead of counting the number of humans an horses, he conuted 74 heads and 196 legs. How many...

Hello!

A straight way to solve this problem is to create a system of equation (and solve it). Namely, denote the number of humans as `x` and the number of horses as `y.`

Then the number of heads is `x+y=74,` while the number of legs is `2x+4y=196.`

Solving such a system is simple: the second equation is equivalent to `x+2y=98,` so `x=98-2y.` Substitute this into the first equation and obtain `98-2y+y=74,` or `y=98-74=24.` Then `x=98-2y=98-48=50.`

The answer: there were 50 humans and 24 horses.

The same calculations may be made without assembling equations. Assume all 74 creatures were humans, then they would have 74*2=148 legs. It is not sufficient, so all "missing" legs are horse ones. There are 196-148=48 "missing" legs. Each horse gives us 2 additional legs compared to a human, so 48/2=24 horses are needed. And therefore 74-24=50 were humans.