Mr. Lester uses 0.2 pounds of rice to make one serving of rice. Mr. Lester usually buys a medium-sized bag of rice, but the store only has large 50-pound bags of rice for purchase. This large bag of rice is 25% heavier than the medium-sized bag Mr. Lester usually buys.

Question

Question
How many servings of rice does Mr. Lester get from the medium-sized bag that he usually buys? Enter the answer in the box.

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servings

Answer 1

To find out how many servings of rice Mr. Lester gets from the medium-sized bag, we first need to determine the weight of the medium-sized bag.

Given that the large bag of rice is 50 pounds and is 25% heavier than the medium-sized bag, we can set up the following equation:

Let \( x \) be the weight of the medium-sized bag. According to the information given:

\[ x + 0.25x = 50 \]

This simplifies to:

\[ 1.25x = 50 \]

To find \( x \), we divide both sides by 1.25:

\[ x = \frac{50}{1.25} = 40 \text{ pounds} \]

Now that we know the medium-sized bag weighs 40 pounds, we can calculate how many servings it provides. Since Mr. Lester uses 0.2 pounds of rice per serving, we divide the total weight of the medium-sized bag by the weight used per serving:

\[ \text{Number of servings} = \frac{40 \text{ pounds}}{0.2 \text{ pounds/serving}} = 200 \text{ servings} \]

Therefore, Mr. Lester gets 200 servings of rice from the medium-sized bag that he usually buys.