Question

Scott's Coffee Shop makes a blend that is a mixture of two types of coffee. Type A coffee costs Scott $5.40 per pound, and type B coffee costs $4.30 per pound. This month, Scott made 176 pounds of the blend, for a total cost of $842.60 . How many pounds of type B coffee did he use?

Answer 1

Let a and b represent the number of pounds of type A and B coffees.

a+b=176 subtract b from both sides

a=176-b and we are also told:

5.4a+4.3b=842.6, using a found above, this equation becomes:

5.4(176-b)+4.3b=842.6

950.4-5.4b+4.3b=842.6 combine like terms on left side

950.4-1.1b=842.6 subtract 950.4 from both sides

-1.1b=-107.8 divide both sides by -1.1

b=98

So Scott used 98 pounds of type B coffee.