Question

Wayne bought blueberries. He uses 3/8 of the blueberries to make blueberry bread, 1/6 to make pancakes, and 5/12 to make jam. If Wayne uses 69 ounces of the blueberries he bought, how many ounces of blueberries did he buy?

a. 92 ounces
b. 96 ounces
c. 100 ounces
d. 108 ounces

Answer 1

Wayne bought 96 ounces of blueberries, as determined by summing the fractions of blueberries used for different foods to find a common fraction and using a proportion to solve for the total weight.

Step-by-step explanation:

Wayne's total use of blueberries is the sum of the fractions of blueberries he used for different purposes, which is 3/8 for blueberry bread, 1/6 for pancakes, and 5/12 for jam. To find out how many ounces of blueberries Wayne bought, we first need to find a common denominator to add these fractions together. The least common multiple of 8, 6, and 12 is 24, so we convert each fraction:

• 3/8 = 9/24
• 1/6 = 4/24
• 5/12 = 10/24

Adding these fractions gives us 9/24 + 4/24 + 10/24 = 23/24 of the blueberries used. Since 23/24 of the blueberries equals 69 ounces, to find the total ounces, let's call it x, we set up the proportion 23/24 = 69/x. Cross multiplying gives us 23x = 24 * 69, which simplifies to x = (24 * 69)/23. When we do the calculation, we find that x = 96, which means Wayne originally bought 96 ounces of blueberries.