Question

Michael is making a large batch of smoothies. The recipe calls for 4 strawberries for every banana. Michael used 55 fruits all together.
What equation could we write to represent that the bananas plus the strawberries equal 55 total pieces of fruit? Use s to represent the strawberries and b to represent the bananas.

Answer 1

To represent the relationship between the strawberries and bananas in Michael's smoothie recipe, we can set up the following equations based on the information provided:

1. The recipe states that there are 4 strawberries for every banana. This can be expressed as:
\[
s = 4b
\]
where \( s \) represents the number of strawberries and \( b \) represents the number of bananas.

2. Michael used a total of 55 fruits, which gives us the equation:
\[
s + b = 55
\]

Now we have a system of two equations:

1. \( s = 4b \)
2. \( s + b = 55 \)

With these equations, you can now solve for the number of strawberries and bananas.