Sue's trail mix is 30% nuts and 70% dried fruit. Jane's trail mix is 60% nuts and 40% chocolate chips. If the combined

Vincen wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 26, 2020 1:02 pm

Sue's trail mix is 30% nuts and 70% dried fruit. Jane's trail mix is 60% nuts and 40% chocolate chips. If the combined mixture of Sue and Jane's trails mix contains 50% nuts, what percent of the combined mixture is dried fruit?

A) 16.67%
B) 23.33%
C) 25%
D) 33.33%
E) 36.67%

Answer: B

Source: Veritas Prep

Let's say that the combined mixture weighs 100 pounds.
If the combined mix is 50% nuts, then there are 50 pounds of nuts in the combined mixture.

Let's let x = the # of pounds of Sue's trail mix
This means that 100-x = the # of pounds of Jane's trail mix

My word equation: (# of pounds of nuts in Sue's portion) + (# of pounds of nuts in Jane's portion) = 50
In other words: (30% of x) + (60% of 100-x) = 50
Rewrite as: 0.3x + 0.6(100-x) = 50
Expand: 0.3x + 60 - 0.6x = 50
Simplify: -0.3x = -10
Solve: x = 10/0.3 = 100/3 = 33 1/3

In other words, the combined (100-pound) mixture contains 33 1/3 pounds of Sue's trail mix.
If Sue's trail mix is 70% dried fruit, then the total weight of dried fruit = (0.7)(33 1/3) = 23 1/3

So, of the 100 pounds of combined mix, there are 23 1/3 pounds of dried fruit.
In other words, 23 1/3% of the combined mixture is dried fruit?

Answer: B

Cheers,
Brent