in a certain animal shelter , the ratio of the number of catsto the number of dogs is 15 to 7 . if 16 additional dogs were to be taken in by the shelter , the ratio of the number of cats to the number of dogs would be 15 to 11 . how many cats are in the shelter ?
"this ratio question can be solved in a couple of different ways . here ' s an algebraic approach . . . we ' re told that the ratio of the number of cats to the number of dogs is 15 : 7 . we ' re then told that 16 more dogs are added to this group and the ratio becomes 15 : 11 . we ' re asked for the number of cats . algebraically , since the number of cats is a multiple of 15 and the number of dogs is a multiple of 7 , we can write this initial relationship as . . . 15 x / 7 x when we add the 16 cats and factor in the ' ending ratio ' , we have an equation . . . . 15 x / ( 7 x + 16 ) = 15 / 11 here we have 1 variable and 1 equation , so we can solve for x . . . . ( 15 x ) ( 11 ) = ( 7 x + 16 ) ( 15 ) ( x ) ( 11 ) = ( 7 x + 16 ) ( 1 ) 11 x = 7 x + 16 4 x = 16 x = 4 with this x , we can figure out the initial number of dogs and cats . . . initial dogs = 15 x = 15 ( 4 ) = 60 final answer : d"
multiply(15, divide(16, subtract(11, 7)))