At a recent visit to the reptile house at the local animal sanctuary, I counted a total of 27 heads and 70 feet.
I was counting snakes, lizards, and people and I know that there were exactly twice as many lizards as people.
How many snakes did I count?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
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Hint
Snakes don't have legs.
Answer
6 snakes, along with 7 people and 14 lizards.
Reasoning
We know that for each person (2 legs) there were 2 lizards (4 legs each).
Which means for every person we can count a total of 10 legs.
Snakes don't have legs, so the total of 70 legs must have been 7 people (and 14 lizards).
This is a total of 21 heads, so the remaining 6 heads were all snakes.
Double-Checking
7 people gives 7 heads and 14 feet.
14 lizards gives 14 heads and 56 feet.
6 snakes gives 6 heads and 0 feet.
For a total of 6 + 7 + 14 = 27 heads, and 0 + 14 + 56 = 70 feet.
