Three grades of Milk

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Three grades of Milk

by ShalakaK » Tue Jul 09, 2013 7:07 pm
Three grades of milk are 1%, 2% and 3% fat by volume. If x gall;ons of the 1% grade, y gallons of the 2% grade and z gallons of the 3 % grade are mixed to give x+y+z gallons of 1.5 % grade. What is tx in terms of y and z?
A) y+3Z
B) (y+z)/4
C) 2y+3z
D) 3y+z
E) 3y+4.5z

OA is A

Please help . I don't understand how to go about this problem.
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by [email protected] » Tue Jul 09, 2013 7:42 pm
Hi ShalakaK,

This is an "in terms of" question; these questions are usually built around 4-5 algebra steps and are fairly straight-forward "math" questions.

First, translate the equation:

[(.01x) + (.02y) + (.03z)] / {x + y + z] = .015

.01x + .02y + .03z = .015x + .015y + .015z

Let's multiply everything by 1000 to get rid of the decimals....

10x + 20y + 30z = 15x + 15y + 15z

5y + 15z = 5x

y + 3z = x

Final Answer: A

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by GMATGuruNY » Tue Jul 09, 2013 8:02 pm
3 grades of milk are 1 percent, 2 percent and 3 percent fat by volume. If x gallons of 1% grade, y gallons of 2% grade and z gallons of 3 % grade are mixed to give x+y+z gallons of 1.5% grade, what is x in terms of y & z?
1) y+3z
2) (y+z)/4
3) 2y+3z
4) 3y+2
5) 3y+4.5z
An alternate approach:

The desired grade -- 1.5% -- is equal to the AVERAGE of x=1% and y=2%:
(1% + 2%)/2 = 1.5%.
Thus, a mixture composed of equal amounts of x and y will be 1.5% grade.

Let x=2 liters, y=2 liters, and z=0 liters, implying that the mixture will composed entirely of equal amounts of x and y (2 liters each).
The question stem asks for the value of x=2. This is our target.
Now we plug y=2 and z=0 into the answers to see which yields our target of 2.
Only A works:
y + 3z = 2 + 3*0 = 2.

The correct answer is A.
Last edited by GMATGuruNY on Wed Jul 10, 2013 1:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by ShalakaK » Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:54 am
THank You for the solution.
The word Grade in the second sentence confused me a lot!
I started thinking the question as say, 1% grade is milk A, 2% grade is milk B, 3%grade is milk C and x, y, z are some respective amounts from these types of milk. THis is where my understanding went worng!!!