Question

Trevor grew 16 plants with 4 seed packets. With 5 seed packets, how many total plants can Trevor have in his backyard? Solve using unit rates.

Answer 1

ok so to solve this you need to write a proportion. start with 16/4 and set it equal to X/1. multiply across (16x1 and 4xX) and set that equal to each other (you should get 16=4X) X is the number of plants one packet grows. you next divide by 4 on both sides to get X=4, so you know one packet makes four plants. using this knowledge, you can multiply the 4 plants by 5 packets to get your answer of 20 plants.

Answer 2

The first thing to do is solve for the unit rate. If there are a total of 16 plants with 4 seed packets; then to get the unit rate, divide 16 by 4.  Then, take this answer and multiply it by 5 to get the amount that would grow with 5 seed packets.