Question 1202921
<br>
Let W = amount of white sugar he bought
let B = amount of brown sugar he bought<br>
He had 3/5 of the white sugar left, so he used 2/5 of it; he had 1/2 of the brown sugar left, so he used 1/2 of it.<br>
He used equal amounts of white and brown sugar:<br>
(2/5)W = (1/2)B
.4W = .5B<br>
Use that to find the ratio of white sugar to brown sugar:<br>
W/B = .5/.4 = 5/4
W:B = 5:4<br>
Having that ratio...
let 5x be the amount of white sugar he bought
let 4x be the amount of brown sugar he bought<br>
The total amount of sugar he bought was 5x+4x = 9x.<br>
He used 2/5 of the white sugar: (2/5)(5x) = 2x;
He used 1/2 of the brown sugar: (1/2)(4x) = 2x.<br>
The total he used was 2x+2x = 4x.<br>
The fraction of the sugar that he used was (4x)/(9x) = 4/9.<br>
ANSWER: 4/9<br>