SOLUTION: Soybean meal is 18% protein, cornmeal is 9% protein. How many pounds of each should be mixed together in order to get 360Lb. mixture that is 11% protein. How many Lbs. of the co

Algebra ->  Linear-equations -> SOLUTION: Soybean meal is 18% protein, cornmeal is 9% protein. How many pounds of each should be mixed together in order to get 360Lb. mixture that is 11% protein. How many Lbs. of the co      Log On


   

Question 174207: Soybean meal is 18% protein, cornmeal is 9% protein. How many pounds of each should be mixed together in order to get 360Lb. mixture that is 11% protein.
How many Lbs. of the cornmeal should be in the mixture?
How many Lbs. o the soybeans should be in the mixture?
( I don't understand word problems that well can someone help me solve this?)
Answer by Mathtut(3670) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
let the number of pounds of soybean and cornmeal be s and c respectively
we know there are 360 pounds altogether
:
s+c=360................eq 1
.18s+.09c=.11(360).....eq 2
:
lets rewrite eq 1 to s=360-c and take that value and plug it into eq 2
:
.18(360-c)+.09c=39.6
:
64.8-.18c+.09c=39.6
:
-.09c=-25.5
:
highlight%28c=280%29pounds of cornmeal
:
highlight%28s=360-c=360-280=80%29pounds of soybean meal
This makes alot of sense because the cornmeal is 9% protein which is much closer to the final mixture of 11% protein that the soybean which is 18%. So it definitely fits that we use alot more of the cormeal mix to reach our 11% protein goal