Question 609549
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I think the trick to this one is to count 4oz chicken, 4oz salmon, some unspecified amount of whole wheat, and 1 cup milk, as "servings."   Then let *[tex \LARGE x_1] represent the number of required servings of chicken, *[tex \LARGE x_2] represent the number of required servings of salmon, etc.


Now, make yourself a table:


<table border="1" bordercolor="#0000FF" style="background-color:#FFFFFF" width="80%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" align="center">
	<tr>
		<td></td>
		<td>Servings</td>
		<td>Magnesium</td>
		<td>Potassium</td>
		<td>Sodium</td>
		<td>Zinc</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Chicken</td>
		<td>*[tex \LARGE x_1]</td>
		<td>32.89</td>
		<td>290.30</td>
		<td>83.91</td>
		<td>1.13</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Salmon</td>
		<td>*[tex \LARGE x_2]</td>
		<td>35.15</td>
		<td>425.24</td>
		<td>74.84</td>
		<td>0.58</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Whole Wheat</td>
		<td>*[tex \LARGE x_3]</td>
		<td>58.24</td>
		<td>123.76</td>
		<td>9.1</td>
		<td>1.04</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>2% Milk</td>
		<td>*[tex \LARGE x_4]</td>
		<td>26.84</td>
		<td>341.60</td>
		<td>114.68</td>
		<td>1.17</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Requirement</td>
		<td></td>
		<td>400</td>
		<td>3500</td>
		<td>2400</td>
		<td>15</td>
	</tr>
</table>


Next note that the amount of magnesium that you would get from *[tex \LARGE x_1] servings of chicken would be *[tex \LARGE 32.89x_1] mg.  So the total amount of magnesium you would get from this chicken/salmon/wheat/milk diet would be:


*[tex \LARGE \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ 32.89x_1\ +\ 35.15x_2\ +\ 58.24x_3\ +\ 26.84x_4]


And you want this to add up to 400mg of magnesium, so:


*[tex \LARGE \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ 32.89x_1\ +\ 35.15x_2\ +\ 58.24x_3\ +\ 26.84x_4\ =\ 400].


The others are set up the exact same way, just read down each of the columns in the table to get the numbers you need.


John
*[tex \LARGE e^{i\pi}\ +\ 1\ =\ 0]
My calculator said it, I believe it, that settles it
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