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| Math Central | Quandaries & Queries |
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Question from Nathan: if there is a chemical mixture of 5:2 and the total amount of the entire solution is 1400 gallons, how many gallons make up the stronger side of the solution? I believe the answer is 1,000 but I figured it out in a non-traditional way so I wanted to understand the basic formula used to determine these types of questions. |
Hi Nathan,
I don't know what formula you are looking for. I seldom use formulas. For this problem I see the entire mixture composed of 7 gallon sections, each section with 5 gallons of one chemical and 2 gallons of the other. Since there are 1400 gallons of solution there are 1400/7 = 200 of these sections. Each section has 5 gallons of the first chemical so in total there are 200 × 5 = 1000 gallons of this chemical.
I hope this helps,
Penny
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