Question

Everyday Math

425. Cooking Natalia's pasta recipe calls for 2 pounds of pasta for 1 quart of sauce. How many pounds of pasta should Natalia cook if she has 2.5 quarts of sauce?

Answer 1

5

Explanation:

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Answer 2

If Natalia's pasta recipe calls for two pounds of pasta for one quart of sauce.

Then she needs to cook 5 pounds of pasta if she has 2.5 quarts of sauce.

Explanation:

• Given that Natalia's pasta recipe calls for two pounds of pasta for one quart of sauce.

• We need to find pounds of pasta to be cooked if she has 2.5 quarts of sauce.

• Use the unitary method to find the pounds of pasta to be cooked.

Step 1 of 2

Given that Natalia's pasta recipe calls for two pounds of pasta for one quart of sauce.

If one quart of sauce calls for two pounds of pasta,

Then to find how much pasta is needed for 2.5 quarts of sauce we need to form a proportion.

Let the pounds of pasta needed be x .

`$$\begin{aligned}\frac{\text { pasta }(\text { inPounds })}{\text { Sauce }(\text { inQuarts })} &=\frac{\text { pasta }(\text { inPounds })}{\text { Sauce(inQuarts })} \\(2)/(1) &=(x)/(2.5)\end{aligned}$$`

Multiplying both sides by 2.5 we get,

`$$\begin{aligned}(2)/(1) * 2.5 &=(x)/(2.5) * 2.5 \\x &=2 * 2.5 \\x &=5\end{aligned}$$`

Step 2 of 2

To check if the answer is reasonable, we substitute it back in the formed proportion

`$(2)/(1)=(x)/(2.5)$$`

We found x=5 hence,

`$$\begin{aligned}(2)/(1) &=(5)/(2.5) \\2 &=2\end{aligned}$$`

Here, LHS =RHS

Hence, our answer is correct.