Miguel's coffee shop makes a blend that is a mixture of two types of coffee. Type A coffee costs Miguel $5.95

per pound, and Type B coffee costs $4.65
per pound. This month's blend used three times as many pounds of Type B coffee as Type A, for a total cost of $796.00
. How many pounds of Type A coffee were used?
40
30
70
50

1 answer

Let the number of pounds of Type A coffee used be denoted as \( x \). According to the problem, the number of pounds of Type B coffee used is three times the pounds of Type A, which can be expressed as \( 3x \).

Next, we can calculate the total cost for both types of coffee:

  • The cost for Type A coffee is \( 5.95x \) (since it costs $5.95 per pound).
  • The cost for Type B coffee is \( 4.65(3x) = 13.95x \) (since it costs $4.65 per pound and there are \( 3x \) pounds).

The total cost for the mixture is given by the sum of the costs of Type A and Type B coffee, which equals $796. This leads to the following equation:

\[ 5.95x + 13.95x = 796 \]

Combining like terms, we have:

\[ 19.90x = 796 \]

To find \( x \), we divide both sides of the equation by 19.90:

\[ x = \frac{796}{19.90} \approx 40 \]

Thus, the number of pounds of Type A coffee used is \( \boxed{40} \).