In a paddock there are emus and wombats. if there are 52 heads and 148 feet how many emus are there?

Let the number of emus be ( e ) and the number of wombats be ( w ). Each emu has 1 head and 2 feet, while each wombat has 1 head and 4 feet. We can set up the equations:

1. ( e + w = 52 ) (for heads)
2. ( 2e + 4w = 148 ) (for feet)

From the first equation, we can express ( w ) as ( w = 52 - e ). Substituting this into the second equation gives us ( 2e + 4(52 - e) = 148 ). Solving this leads to ( e = 26 ) and ( w = 26 ), so there are 26 emus.