SOLUTION: Candy, a confectioner, has a 9 pound bag of mixed candy that contains 20% chocolate. How many pounds should she remove from the bag so that when she adds just chocolate to the bag,

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Question 712355: Candy, a confectioner, has a 9 pound bag of mixed candy that contains 20% chocolate. How many pounds should she remove from the bag so that when she adds just chocolate to the bag, she'll have a mixture that contains 50% chocolate?
I've determined the variable as x which equals pounds removed but not sure where to go from here?
Answer by josgarithmetic(39617) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Candy starts with 9 pounds mixture * 0.20 fraction chocolate = 1.8 pounds of chocolate. She will remove x pounds of this 0.20 fraction chocolate, add x pounds of pure chocolate, still have 9 pounds of mixture, and this now be 50% chocolate.


%289%2A0.20-0.20x%2B1%2Ax%29%2F9=0.50, check this carefully to know how the numbers work. I'm using decimal values instead of percents.

0.2%2A9%2B0.8%2Ax=9%2A0.50
x=9%280.5-0.2%29%2F0.8
x=9%283%2F8%29
x=27%2F8
x=3%263%2F8 pounds

That value is worth checking. It does work. Yes I did check.