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One salt solution is 20% salt and another is 60% salt. How many cubic centimeters of each solution must be mixed to obtain 100 cubic centimeters of a 30% salt solution?

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Answer: Let's denote the number of cubic centimeters of the 20% salt solution as x and the number of cubic centimeters of the 60% salt solution as y.

We know that the total volume of the mixture is 100 cubic centimeters, so we have:

x + y = 100

We also know that the final solution should be a 30% salt solution. This means that the amount of salt in the final solution should be 0.3 times the total volume of the solution:

0.3(100) = 0.20x + 0.60y

where 0.20x represents the amount of salt in the 20% salt solution and 0.60y represents the amount of salt in the 60% salt solution.

We now have two equations with two unknowns:

x + y = 100

0.20x + 0.60y = 30

We can solve for x and y by using any method of linear equations, such as substitution or elimination.

Here, we will use substitution. Solving the first equation for x, we get:

x = 100 - y

Substituting this expression for x in the second equation, we get:

0.20(100 - y) + 0.60y = 30

Simplifying and solving for y, we get:

20 - 0.20y + 0.60y = 30

0.40y = 10

y = 25

So, we need 25 cubic centimeters of the 60% salt solution.

To find the amount of the 20% salt solution, we can substitute this value of y back into either equation:

x + y = 100

x + 25 = 100

x = 75

So, we need 75 cubic centimeters of the 20% salt solution.

Therefore, we need to mix 75 cubic centimeters of the 20% salt solution and 25 cubic centimeters of the 60% salt solution to obtain 100 cubic centimeters of a 30% salt solution.

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