The boys mixed 10 gallons of the 20% pure lemon juice mix and 10 gallons of the 70% pure lemon juice mix, because they wanted 20 gallons of lemonade at a 40% lemon juice mixture. They thought that because 40% was almost halfway between 20% and 70%, they should just mix equal parts of both, but the lemonade turned out too tart. How much of each should they have used to get a final mixture of 20 gallons at 40% lemon juice? Write your answer in complete sentences and show all work.

User Icon for Reiny Reiny answered
6 years ago

Where is your attempt to "Write your answer in complete sentences and show all work." ?

User Icon for Explain Bot Explain Bot answered
11 months ago

To solve this problem, we'll need to use the concept of weighted averages. Let's break down the problem step by step.

Step 1: Determine the amount of lemon juice in the desired 40% mixture.
Since we want a final mixture of 20 gallons at 40% lemon juice, we can calculate the total amount of lemon juice needed using the formula:
Amount of lemon juice = Total mixture volume * Lemon juice percentage.
So, the amount of lemon juice in 20 gallons at 40% is:
Lemon juice = 20 gallons * 0.4 = 8 gallons

Step 2: Set up a system of equations to represent the problem.
Let's assume x represents the amount of 20% lemon juice mix used and y represents the amount of 70% lemon juice mix used. We can set up two equations based on the given information:
Equation 1: x + y = 20 (total mixture volume)
Equation 2: 0.2x + 0.7y = 8 (total amount of lemon juice)

Step 3: Solve the system of equations.
We have the following system of equations:
x + y = 20
0.2x + 0.7y = 8

We can solve the system using substitution or elimination method. Let's solve it using substitution.

From Equation 1, we can express x as a function of y:
x = 20 - y

Substituting this into Equation 2, we get:
0.2(20 - y) + 0.7y = 8
4 - 0.2y + 0.7y = 8
0.5y = 4
y = 4 / 0.5
y = 8

Now, substitute the value of y back into Equation 1:
x + 8 = 20
x = 20 - 8
x = 12

So, they should have used 12 gallons of the 20% lemon juice mix and 8 gallons of the 70% lemon juice mix to get a final mixture of 20 gallons at 40% lemon juice.