SOLUTION: you decide to make homemade dried apricots and purchased 10 pounds of fresh apricots at the farmer's market. when the apricots were fresh, 85% of their weight was water. after 12 h

We are given that 


0.85*10 = 8.5 pounds is the water content in 10 pounds of fresh apricots before drying. Hence, 1.5 pounds is the fiber mass with no water.


Let x be the water content in the apricots after drying. Then the condition says that


 = 0.25.


Simplify and solve this equation for x:
  

x = 0.25x + 0.25*1.5


x - 0.25x = 0.25*1.5  ====>  0.75x = 0.25*1.5  ====>  x =  = 0.5.


Thus the water content in the dried apricots is 0.5 pound.


With  1.5 pounds of the dry part it is 1.5 + 0.5 = 2 pounds altogether.


Now the answer to the question  "how many pounds did the apricots weigh after 12 hours in the dehydrator"  is  2 pounds.