SOLUTION: Hello, How do you solve this? A landscaping company mixes its own proprietary blend of topsoil that costs $29.55 per ton to make. The blend contains soil that costs $25.05 per

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Question 1031026: Hello,
How do you solve this?
A landscaping company mixes its own proprietary blend of topsoil that costs $29.55 per ton to make. The blend contains soil that costs $25.05 per ton and organic compost that costs $36.30 per ton. If the company already has 3 tons of soil on hand, how many tons of compost do they need to mix in?

It is a weighted average
Answer by josgarithmetic(39623) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
This should or can be split into two separate problems.

Here is the first problem:
own proprietary blend of topsoil that costs $29.55 per ton to make. The blend contains soil that costs $25.05 per ton and organic compost that costs $36.30 per ton.
Solve for the proportions of the two materials making the topsoil.


Then the second problem:
the company already has 3 tons of soil on hand, how many tons of compost do they need to mix in?
This is turned into simply a proportion problem, or the equality of two ratios.


You might try handling the first problem using just a single variable, say x for the tons of the $25.05 soil; and 100-x for the tons of the $36.30 per ton organic compost; and this would be for 100 tons of the proprietary blend. The pricing is per TON. Look at COST per TON.
-
25.05%2Ax%2B36.30%28100-x%29=100%2A29.55, which accounts for cost, based on making 100 tons of proprietary blend.

Solve for x and compute 100-x.
Then go to problems number 2.