College Algebra word problem

Question

Stephanie purchases an imported olive oil which costs fifty cents per ounce. She decides to make it last longer and save money bu diluting it with canola oil which costs only eight cents per ounce. How many ounces of canola oil should she add to sixteen ounces of the olive oil if she wants the mixture to cost only forty cents per ounce?

Answer 1

Hi! The algebra problem you have to solve involves: 16 ounces of olive oil, and ounces of canola oil (call this n) Stephanie wants the total (16 + n) ounces to cost forty cents per ounce. This would be a sum of the costs of each oil: olive oil costs fifty cents per ounce, and canola oil costs eight cents per ounce So, the two costs would equal up to the cost of the (16 + n) ounces of the mixture. We write: $0.40 * (16 + n) = $0.08 * n + $0.50 * 16 and solve for n. Best Regards, Joe