Exercising causes an athlete’s body to lose potassium, and it is important to replenish this nutrient after a race.

Question

For middle-school students, the recommended amount of potassium intake is 4.5 grams per day. If a student athlete eats a banana containing 0.54 grams of potassium, and drinks 6 ounces of orange juice containing 0.372 grams of potassium, how many more grams of potassium does she need?

How can you find how many more grams of potassium the athlete needs to reach the recommended amount?

To solve this problem, I would ________

A. subtract 4.5 - 0.54
B. subtract 4.5 - 0.372 then add 0.54 to the difference
C. add 0.54 + 0.372 and subtract the sum from 4.5
D. add 0.54 + 0.372 + 4.5

Answer 1

To find out how many more grams of potassium the athlete needs to reach the recommended amount, you should first determine the total amount of potassium she has consumed from the banana and orange juice. Then, subtract that total from the recommended intake of 4.5 grams.

The correct way to approach this problem is:

C. add 0.54 + 0.372 and subtract the sum from 4.5

Here's a breakdown of the steps:

1. Calculate the total potassium consumed: \( 0.54 , \text{grams (from banana)} + 0.372 , \text{grams (from orange juice)} = 0.912 , \text{grams} \)

2. Subtract the total from the recommended amount: \( 4.5 , \text{grams (recommended)} - 0.912 , \text{grams (consumed)} = 3.588 , \text{grams} \)

Therefore, the athlete needs 3.588 more grams of potassium.