Sydney and Amanda should order 60 pieces of fried chicken for their graduation party, which will include 40 standard guests and 45 drop-in guests counted as half guests each.
To calculate the amount of each food item Sydney and Amanda should order for their graduation party with 45 drop-in guests, we need to consider that each drop-in guest counts as half a regular guest. Since they already expect 40 guests, we can calculate the total guest count as follows:
45 drop-in guests count as 22.5 regular guests (because 45 drop-in guests × 0.5).
The total number of guests including drop-ins would be 40 regular guests + 22.5 from drop-ins = 62.5 guests.
To scale up the recommendation for 25 standard guests to the needed amount for 62.5 guests, we must perform a proportion:
Determine how many times more guests there are: 62.5 / 25 = 2.5 times.
Now, for each item:
Multiply the amount of fried chicken (24 pieces for 25 guests) by 2.5 to get the amount needed for 62.5 guests.
24 pieces × 2.5 = 60 pieces.
Sydney and Amanda should order 60 pieces of fried chicken for their graduation party.