Question: Gabriela would like to build the garden of her dreams.

Question

Gabriela would like to build the garden of her dreams. She needs 17 cubic feet of soil containing 20% clay. She has two types of soil that she can combine to achieve this: soil with 27% clay and soil with 15% clay. How much of each soil should she use?

Answer 1

x cubic feet of 27% and (17 - x) of 15%. We have equation: 0.27x + 0.15(17 - x) = 0.20·17;

0.27x - 0.15x = 0.20·17 - 0.15·17; 0.12x = 0.85; x = 0.85/0.12 ≈ 7.08 cubic feet 27% clay;

Then 17 - 7.08 = 9.92 cubic feet of 15% clay