Question

Mon wants to make 5 lbs of the sugar syrup. How much water and how much sugar does he need to make 50% syrup?

Answer 1

A 50% syrup solution would be half water and half sugar. In other words, there'd be the same weight of sugar as there would be of water. Let this weight be x. Then 2x=5 lb, and x = 5/2 lb.

Use 5/2 lb of water and 5/2 lb of sugar to make this 50% syrup.

Answer 2

Mon needs 2.5 pounds of sugar and 2.5 of syrup.

Explanation:

To make 50% syrup, having 5 pounds of sugar syrup, it would be

`(x)/(5)=0.5=2.5 lb`

Mon would need 2.5 pounds of sugar.

Now, Mon has 2.5 pounds of sugar, how much water does she need to make 50% syrup?

`(2.5)/(x+2.5)=0.5\\ 2.5=0.5(x+2.5)\\2.5=0.5x+1.25\\2.5-1.25=0.5x\\x=(1.25)/(0.5)=2.5`

This means that Mon needs 2.5 pounds of water too.

As you can see, the easiest way to find the answer would be to divide the initial 5 pounds in to equal parts, which are 2.5, because they syrup have to 50%.

Therefore, Mon needs 2.5 pounds of sugar and 2.5 of syrup.