Jonny had 30 cows, 28 chickens, how many didnt?
The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
The answer is 2.
Here’s the explanation:
This question is a play on words, designed to mislead the reader by sounding straightforward at first glance. It reads, “Jonny had 30 cows, 28 chickens, how many didn’t?” The trick lies in interpreting the phrase “28 chickens.” Instead of saying there are 28 (twenty-eight) chickens, it’s actually suggesting that “20 [of the] 30 cows ate chickens.” Rephrased, it says, “Jonny had 30 cows, 20 ate chickens. How many didn’t?”
Now, let’s break down the numbers:
- Jonny has 30 cows in total.
- Out of these, 20 cows ate chickens.
- The question is asking, “how many didn’t?” – referring to the cows that did not eat chickens.
Since 20 of the cows ate chickens, the remainder did not. To find out how many didn’t eat chickens, we subtract the 20 that did eat chickens from the total 30 cows:
[
30 – 20 = 10
]
Thus, 10 cows did not eat chickens.
However, if we’re answering the question based on what’s literally asked, “how many didn’t?” can be ambiguous if not clarified. In this case, understanding the trick is essential, as it makes the question more about the language play than a mathematical calculation.
By recognizing the hidden meaning in the phrasing, we see the question isn’t about chickens directly but about the behavior of cows (specifically, which ones did not engage in eating chickens). Therefore, the answer is based on interpretation rather than calculation alone, and solving it requires careful attention to wording rather than only relying on numbers.