Here is the question:

Question

"To make a pancake mix, add 1/2 cup of sugar, 3 cups of flour, 1 cup of powdered milk, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Assuming the volume of the baking powder and salt are negligible, how much flour will be needed to make 50 cups of the dry mix?"

We are doing proportions, which is:

a= c
over
b d

***The units of A&C have to be the same and B&D also.

I got this far in the problem while doing it::::

x (cups of flour) = ???
________________ = _________
50 cups of flour 3 cups of flour


for the top ?? do I put all the dry ingredients listed in the question asked? Because I don't think I do, because if I did so, then the outcome would be too large, wouldn't it?
And then it asks:

"List the ingredients to a favorite recipe. Triple the recipe."

then

"Now figure 1/3 the recipe. Try using fraction multiplication, then do the problem again using proportion method."

The recipe I chose was this::

FRUIT SALAD

1 pint of strawberries
1 pound of grapes
3 bananas
1 (8 oz) strawberry yogurt.

I'm really stupid.
So to triple the recipe that I write, I would times it by 3, correct?

But when it tells me to do 1/3 of the recipe I keep getting the tripled amount.
Am I doing something wrong?

Answer 1

You have 3 cups flour + 1/2 cup sugar + 1 cup dry milk = 4.5 cups total dry mix.
Now the proportion is
(cups flour/old dry mix) =(new cups flour/new dry mix).
(3/4.5)=(?/50)
Cross multiply to obtain
3*50 = 4.5*?
? = (3*50/4.5) = ??cups flour in 50 cups of dry mix.

For the favorite recipe, the problem says to figure 1/3 the recipe; therefore, multiply by 1/3. You are multiplying by 3 if you are tripling it.

1 pt x 1/3 = 1/3 pt strawberries,
1 pound x 1/3 = 1/3 pound grapes,
3 bananas x 1/3 = 1 banana,
1 cup yogurt x 1/3 = 1/3 cup strawberry yogurt.

Answer 2

I went back and reread the problem. I think it is asking
1. First, to triple the recipe, which means you WOULD multiply by 3.
2. Then the problem asks you to figure 1/3 the recipe and I worked that part.