Michael is making a large batch of smoothies. The recipe calls for 4 strawberries for every banana. Michael used 55 fruits all together.

Question

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.