I'm stupid

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>man mice

>3 cats catch 10 mice in 5 minutes
>3 cats catch 10/5=2 mice in 1 minute
>1 cat catches 2/3 mice in 1 minute
>1 cat catches 2/3*6=4 mice in 6 minutes
>5 cats catch 4*5=20 mice in 6 minutes

In one step:

5/3 * 6/5 * 10 = 20

It's simple rule of three arithmetrics, anon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-multiplication#Rule_of_Three

>>312117
>how many mice catch 5 cats in 6 minutes?
Cats catch mice. Mice don't catch cats.

English is Subject-Verb-Object*, so it's [5 cats]S [catch]V [how many mice]O.

*It can be OSV if you're being poetic ("A cab I hailed. Yellow it was."); the important thing is that whatever's directly in front of the verb becomes the subject.

>>312130
No, actually, "how many objects verb 5 subjects in 6 minutes" is fine. Not sure if it's "officially" grammatically correct but a native speaker might use such a construct.

>>312117
>3 cats catch 10 mice in 5 minutes
How many mice does 1 cat catch in one minute?
10 / 3 / 5 = 10/15 = 2/3

In that case, 5 cats in 6 minutes catch:
2/3 * 5 * 6 = 2/3 * 30 = 20 mice

>>312156
No, actually, "how many objects verb 5 subjects in 6 minutes" is not fine.

If you say "how many fish eat five men in six minutes", every listener, unanimously, will think that "five men" is the object (because it's after the verb), and that "fish" is the subject (because it's before the verb). You absolutely cannot transpose object and subject in English, because English doesn't use particles to mark them, and English doesn't conjugate them to mark them, and the one and only way you tell the subject and the object in English is that the subject is the first noun phrase to the left of the verb.

If you put a different noun phrase in front of the verb, that noun phrase becomes the subject.

>Not sure if it's "officially" grammatically correct but a native speaker might use such a construct.
Please, please stop doing that ESL thing where you tell native speakers how their own language works. There's nothing wrong with being wrong; there's a lot wrong with being all butthurt about it.

>>312162
I'm not telling you how it works, I'm just saying it may happen that a native speaker asks "how many objects verb subjects?"

Correct me if I'm wrong. It's a little unusual but doesn't sound wrong to me.

Especially if it's a past tense question:
"How much candy ate Jack?"

>>312166
It's absolutely wrong unless Jack got eaten by a gang of candy and you're asking how many members it had.

>>312117
so 3 cats catch 2 mice in 1 minute
so 3 cats catch 12 mice in 6 minutes
so 1 cat catch 4 mice in 6 minutes
so 5 cats catch 20 mice in 6 minutes

>>312162
How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?

>>312309
even when it is
How many roads must walk down a man before you call him a man?
it makes sense, who the hell cares about grammatical correctness as long as it makes sense on an imageboard

>>312309
The subject is still the noun phrase closest to the left of the main verb.

A man(s) must(av) eat(v) five candies(o).
How many candies(o) must(av) a man(s) eat(v)?

>3 cats catch 6*10=60 mice in 6*5=30 minutes
>3 cats catch 60/5=12 mice in 30/5=6 minutes
>1 cat catches 12/3=4 mice in 6 minutes
>5 cats catch 5*4=20 mice in 6 minutes

>>312326
When a toddler says "i eated dinner", he's still wrong though you can tell he meant "ate". It sounds stupid, but we forgive young kids for being stupid because they're kids.

If you say "How many roads must walk down a man", you sound stupid and very obviously ESL.

>>312512
>ESL
>when you are a kid and want attention ... ESL comes to your rescue