Use Proportions to Solve Real-world Problems help?

Question

3. A food manufacturer packages trail mix by combining various ingredients in certain proportions. If the trail mix should contain five cups of peanuts for every two cups of raisins, how many cups of raisins should be added to 15 cups of peanuts?

a) set up a proportion, defining a variable for the unknown quantity,

b) solve the proportion, showing all work leading to your answer, and

c) write a sentence to explain the meaning of the answer for the situation.

Answer 1

Step 1:

Trail mix should contain five cups of peanuts for every two cups of raisins.

Set up a proportion.

.

Let cups of raisins are needed to add 15 cups of peanuts.

The proportion is .

Step 2:

Find how many cups of raisins are needed to add 15 cups of peanuts.
Use proportions to find .

(c)

Therefore, 6 cups of raisins are needed to add 15 cups of peanuts.

Solution:

(a) The proportion is .

(b) .

(c) 6 cups of raisins are needed to add 15 cups of peanuts.