SOLUTION: Sarah Meeham blends coffee for Tasti-Delight. She needs to prepare 150lbs of blended coffee beans selling for $5.17 per pound. She plans to do this by blending together a high qual

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Question 789807: Sarah Meeham blends coffee for Tasti-Delight. She needs to prepare 150lbs of blended coffee beans selling for $5.17 per pound. She plans to do this by blending together a high quality bean costing $6.00 per pound and a cheaper bean costing $3.50 a pound. To the nearest pound, find how much high quality bean and how much cheaper coffee bean she should use.
Hello! I was assuming that my equation would be something similar to 6x + 3.50y = 5.17... but I'm not sure how to incorporate and figure out the 150 lbs part? Help? Thank you!
Answer by josgarithmetic(39620) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
This is a mixture problem involving price and cost. The target is about finding a price of resulting blend which becomes 5.17 DOLLARS per POUND.

{cost of blend}/{pounds of blend}={price of blend}

Let x = pounds of the 6 dollar a pound coffee
Let y = pounds of the 3.5 dollar a pound coffee

AND

YES. TWO Equations. They are both linear equations. Work with the ratio equation so it is either easier to use for substitution or so it is in Standard Form:

Subtract 6 of the mass sum equation from this price equation to solve for y:

pounds
Now find the other value higher priced coffee,

To nearest pound,
pounds, the more expensive coffee
pounds, the cheaper coffee