The candy man store packages jelly beans in 3 1/2 lb bags. How many bags can be made from 70 lbs of candy?

Question

this question has me stumped and I’m not sure how to work through it. I made a guess by just dividing 70 by 3.5 and that gave me 20 but I have no idea if that is the actual answer

Answer 1

Hello Ashley,

How about setting the problem up as a proportional equation?

For example:

1 = x

-- ---

3.5 70

Now, you can cross multiply which will lead you to the following equation:

3.5x = 70

Now, divide both sides of the equation by 3.5 to leave x to itself.

x = 20

The answer is 20 bags.

While it seems to be a lot of extra work setting up the proportional equation, in the end I think you will agree that it leads you to the correct answer each time. Just remember to place like units of measure on the numerator and denominators when doing this, okay?

I sure hope this helped and wish you a great day tomorrow. If you need further assistance, please feel free to reach out to any tutor.