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

Question

subtract 4.5 - 0.372 then add 0.54 to the difference
add 0.54 + 0.372 and subtract the sum from 4.5
subtract 4.5 - 0.54
add 0.54 + 0.372 + 4.5

Answer 1

To determine how many more grams of potassium the student athlete needs to reach the recommended intake of 4.5 grams per day, you can follow these steps:

1. Calculate the total amount of potassium consumed from the banana and the orange juice.

   • Potassium in banana: 0.54 grams
   • Potassium in orange juice: 0.372 grams
   • Total potassium consumed: \(0.54 + 0.372\)

2. Subtract the total potassium consumed from the recommended amount to find out how much more she needs.

   • Recommended potassium intake: 4.5 grams
   • Required potassium: \(4.5 - \text{(Total potassium consumed)}\)

So the correct approach is:

1. Calculate the total potassium consumed: \(0.54 + 0.372\)
2. Subtract this total from 4.5 grams.

This corresponds to the first option properly stated:

• First, add \(0.54 + 0.372\) to find the total potassium consumed.
• Then subtract this total from 4.5 grams to find how many more grams the athlete needs.

However, note that the answer choice "add 0.54 + 0.372 and subtract the sum from 4.5" is the most accurate way of stating this process.

Let’s calculate:

1. \(0.54 + 0.372 = 0.912\) grams (total potassium consumed).
2. \(4.5 - 0.912 = 3.588\) grams.

Thus, the student athlete needs 3.588 grams more potassium to reach the recommended amount.