Someone mixes sour candy( = $.90/lb) with gumdrops($1.50/lb) to make a 20lb mix worth $1.20/lb. How many pounds of each candy will be used?

Question

lost my notes, class starts in a few hours, for some odd reason my teammates sent me home with it. 

Answer 1

Hi Rylan, the way to solve this type of problem is to set up a table. Let x represent the unknown amount of sour candy.

 

Table:

 

Product         Cost          Amount              Total

-------------------------------------------------------------

Sour candy      .90             x                 .90 * x

 

Gumdrops      1.50         20 - x            1.50 * (20 - x)

 

Mix                1.20            20             1.20 * 20

 

 

We know that the amount of sour candy plus the amount of gumdrops must equal the amount of mix.

 

Equation:

 

.90 * x + 1.50 * (20 - x)  = 1.20 * 20

 

Combine terms:

 

-.60x = - 6

 

x = 10

 

The mix will have 10 pounds of sour candy.

 

The mix will have 20 - 10, or 10 pounds of gumdrops.

 

Questions?