Question

A chemist wants to make 100 liters of a 44% acid solution. She has solutions that are 20% acid and 60% acid.

How much of each must she mix?

Answer 1

the first solution is 20% acid, and say we'll be using "x" liters, so how many liters of just acid are in it? well 20% of "x" or namely 0.2x. Likewise for the 60% acid solution, if we had "y" liters of it, the amount of only acid in it is 0.6y.

`\begin{array}{lcccl} &\stackrel{solution}{quantity}&\stackrel{\textit{\% of }}{amount}&\stackrel{\textit{liters of }}{amount}\\ \cline{2-4}&\\ \textit{1st solution}&x&0.20&0.2x\\ \textit{2nd solution}&y&0.60&0.6y\\ \cline{2-4}&\\ mixture&100&0.44&44 \end{array}~\hfill \begin{cases} x+y=100\\\\ 0.2x+0.6y=44 \end{cases}`

`x+y=100\implies y=100-x~\hfill \stackrel{\textit{substituting on the 2nd equation}}{0.2x+0.6(100-x)=44} \\\\\\ 0.2x+60-0.6x=44\implies -0.4x+60=44\implies -0.4x=-16 \\\\\\ x=\cfrac{-16}{-0.4}\implies \boxed{x=40}~\hfill \boxed{\stackrel{100-40}{y=60}}`