If 2 cats kill 2 rats in 2 minutes, then how many cats will it take to kill 10 rats in 10 minutes?
The correct answer and explanation is:
The answer is 2 cats.
Explanation:
The problem presents the idea that 2 cats can kill 2 rats in 2 minutes. This means that each cat kills 1 rat in 2 minutes. So, over a 10-minute period, each cat will kill 5 rats, as 10 minutes divided by 2 minutes equals 5 rats per cat.
If the goal is to kill 10 rats in 10 minutes, each cat will kill 5 rats in that time. Therefore, only 2 cats are needed because 2 cats killing 5 rats each would result in a total of 10 rats killed (2 cats × 5 rats = 10 rats).
The key factor here is that the number of cats required does not change because the total amount of time is proportional to the number of rats being killed. Since the original setup indicates that 2 cats can already kill 2 rats in 2 minutes, there is no need to increase the number of cats to reach the goal of 10 rats in 10 minutes.