Question

The owner of a candy store is creating a candy medley that costs $2.95 per pound. The medley contains jelly beans at $3.30 per pound, plus gumdrops at $1.55 per pound. If there are 30 pounds of jelly beans available, how many pounds of gumdrops will the owner need to use?

Answer 1

Let x = pounds of gumdrops. Then
(3.30·30 + 1.55·x) / (30 + x) = 2.95.
So 99 + 1.55x = 2.95(30 + x) = 88.5 + 2.95x.
Thus 99 − 88.5 = (2.95 − 1.55)x → 10.5 = 1.4x → x = 7.5.

The owner needs 7.5 pounds of gumdrops.