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How many liters of 20% silver must be added to 80 liters of 70% silver to make a 40% silver alloy?

a) 20 liters
b) 30 liters
c) 40 liters
d) 50 liters

1 Answer

5 votes

Final answer:

To make a 40% silver alloy, 120 liters of 20% silver must be added to the initial solution.

Step-by-step explanation:

The correct answer is option b) 30 liters.

To solve this problem, we can use the concept of the amount of silver in a solution.

We are given that the initial solution contains 80 liters of 70% silver. This means that the solution contains 0.7 * 80 = 56 liters of silver.

Let's assume that x liters of 20% silver are added to the solution. This means that x liters of the solution contain 0.2 * x liters of silver.

The final solution is required to have a silver concentration of 40%. This means that the final solution will contain (56 + 0.2 * x) liters of silver.

Now we can set up the equation:

56 + 0.2 * x = 0.4 * (80 + x)

Simplifying the equation gives:

56 + 0.2 * x = 32 + 0.4 * x

0.2 * x - 0.4 * x = 32 - 56

-0.2 * x = -24

x = -24 / -0.2 = 120

Therefore, 120 liters of 20% silver must be added to the initial solution to make a 40% silver alloy.

User Philip Atz
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