Question

Fill In The Blank

A person who weighs 240 pounds burns 180 calories per mile of running. If a person burns thirty-six calories by running one mile, how much does the person weigh?
A person who weighs _____ pounds, burns thirty-six calories while running one mile.

Answer 1

48 Pounds

Explanation:

With this question, we must proportionalize the two weights by making ratios.

Begin with the first person, we have the fraction 240/180. This fraction simplifies to 4/3. We now have the person with the unknown weight. Set up a new fraction for this person, with the weight in the numerator and the calories in the denomenator to match this first fraction. We end up with X/36, with X resembling the unkown weight.

We now want to find an X value such that it is equal to our previous known ratio of 4/3. There are many ways to find this. I divided 36 by three to get 12. Multiply 12 by 4 and you will get 48.

We now have a fraction of 48/36. This fraction simplifies to 4/3 as well, making it similar to the first person.

Thus, 48 pounds is correct :)