Question

Cecile packages snack mix at health food store. She uses 1/3 of her supply of sunflower seeds to Make a salted snack mix and 2/9 of her supply to make an unsalted snack mix. If Cecile uses 10 pounds of sunflower seeds, how many pounds of seeds are in her supply?

A: 18
B: 23
C: 30
D: 40

Answer 1

Cecile used 5/9 of her sunflower seed supply, totaling 10 pounds. By calculating the total supply that equals to 9/9, we find that she started with 18 pounds of sunflower seeds.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question involves finding the total supply of sunflower seeds used by Cecile if she uses 1/3 for a salted snack mix and 2/9 for an unsalted snack mix. The total amount used is 10 pounds. To find the original supply, we can add the two fractions to get the total fraction of the supply used, which is:

1/3 + 2/9 = 3/9 + 2/9 = 5/9

This means that 5/9 of the supply is 10 pounds. We need to find the full supply (9/9), so we set up a proportion:

5/9 of supply = 10 pounds
9/9 of supply = X pounds

To find X, we can use the cross multiplication method:

(5/9) * X = 10 * 9
5X = 90
X = 90/5
X = 18 pounds

Therefore, Cecile's original supply of sunflower seeds is 18 pounds. The correct answer is A: 18.