Sadie is going to make meatballs for dinner tonight and meatloaf for dinner tomorrow. She's trying to figure out how much ground beef she should buy. She needs enough for 15 same-sized meatballs plus an additional 2 pounds for the meatloaf. Sadie decides to order 4.25 pounds of ground beef in all.

Question

Which equation can you use to find m, the amount of ground beef Sadie should use to make each meatball?
How much ground beef should Sadie use to make each meatball?
Write your answer as a whole number or a decimal.
pounds

Answer 1

Let's denote \( m \) as the amount of ground beef (in pounds) used for each meatball.

Sadie needs enough ground beef for 15 meatballs, which would be \( 15m \), plus 2 pounds for the meatloaf. Therefore, the total amount of ground beef she orders is:

\[ 15m + 2 = 4.25 \]

Now, we can solve for \( m \). First, subtract 2 from both sides of the equation:

\[ 15m = 4.25 - 2 \] \[ 15m = 2.25 \]

Next, divide both sides by 15:

\[ m = \frac{2.25}{15} \]

Calculating \( m \):

\[ m = 0.15 \]

Therefore, the amount of ground beef Sadie should use to make each meatball is

\[ \boxed{0.15} \text{ pounds}. \]