A baby elephant weighs 150 pounds when born. It gains 2 pounds per day during the first year. How many days will it take the elephant to weigh a total of 224

1 answer

To find out how many days it will take for the baby elephant to weigh a total of 224 pounds, we start with its birth weight and the daily weight gain.

  1. The initial weight of the baby elephant at birth is 150 pounds.
  2. The baby elephant gains 2 pounds per day.

Let \( d \) be the number of days after birth. The weight of the baby elephant after \( d \) days can be calculated using the formula:

\[ \text{Weight} = \text{Initial Weight} + (\text{Daily Gain} \times d) \]

This can be expressed as:

\[ \text{Weight} = 150 + (2 \times d) \]

We are looking for the number of days \( d \) when the weight equals 224 pounds:

\[ 150 + (2 \times d) = 224 \]

Now, we can solve for \( d \):

  1. Subtract 150 from both sides:

\[ 2d = 224 - 150 \]

\[ 2d = 74 \]

  1. Divide both sides by 2:

\[ d = \frac{74}{2} = 37 \]

Thus, it will take the baby elephant 37 days to weigh a total of 224 pounds.