Question

Mia made some warm salt water by mixing one teaspoon of salt with 3 cups of water. Mia's mom added 5 cups of water. How much salt does she need to use for it to taste like the original?

Answer 1

Mia originally mixed 1 teaspoon of salt with 3 cups of water. After her mom added 5 cups, making it 8 cups of water in total, Mia would need to add an additional 5/3 teaspoons of salt to maintain the same saltiness.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine how much salt Mia needs to add to maintain the original saltiness after her mom added 5 cups of water, we can calculate the new concentration of salt in the solution. Mia originally mixed 1 teaspoon of salt with 3 cups of water. When her mom added 5 more cups, the total amount of water became 3 + 5 = 8 cups.

Since Mia's original mixture was 1 teaspoon of salt to 3 cups of water, we need to maintain the same ratio of salt to water for the solution to taste the same. Therefore, for 8 cups of water, Mia would need to use (8 cups / 3 cups) × 1 teaspoon of salt = (8/3) teaspoons of salt. However, since Mia already added 1 teaspoon when she made the original 3 cups, she needs to add an additional 5/3 teaspoons of salt to reach the new total of 8/3 teaspoons.