Question

Paul runs a small farm. After the last harvest, he weighed the amount of squash he collected. He had 42.2 total pounds of green and yellow squash. If yellow squash made up
1
5
of the harvest by weight, how many pounds of green squash did he have?
Write your answer as a whole number, decimal, fraction, or mixed number. Simplify any fractions.
pounds

Answer 1

To find out how many pounds of green squash Paul had, we first need to determine the weight of the yellow squash.

Since yellow squash made up \( \frac{1}{5} \) of the total harvest, we can calculate the weight of the yellow squash as follows:

\[
\text{Weight of yellow squash} = \text{Total weight} \times \frac{1}{5} = 42.2 \times \frac{1}{5}
\]

Calculating this:

\[
42.2 \div 5 = 8.44 \text{ pounds}
\]

Now, to find the weight of the green squash, we subtract the weight of the yellow squash from the total weight:

\[
\text{Weight of green squash} = \text{Total weight} - \text{Weight of yellow squash}
\]

\[
\text{Weight of green squash} = 42.2 - 8.44
\]

Calculating this gives:

\[
42.2 - 8.44 = 33.76 \text{ pounds}
\]

So, Paul had \( 33.76 \) pounds of green squash.