Question

Maria makes a fruit salad. The table shows the amounts of different kinds of fruit that she uses.

Answer 1

To be able to determine how many cups of strawberries does Maria use, we will be using the given clue regarding the number of strawberries she uses for the salad.

"The amount of strawberries that Maria uses is 3/8 times the amount of the other fruits combined."

From that, we generate this computation for the number of strawberries:

`\text{ Amount of Strawberries = }(3)/(8)(Grapes\text{ + Melon + Pineapple)}`

We get,

`\text{ Amount of Strawberries = }(3)/(8)(Grapes\text{ + Melon + Pineapple)}`
`\text{ Amount of Strawberries = }(3)/(8)(3(2)/(3)\text{ + 2}(1)/(4)\text{ + 2}(3)/(4))`
`\text{= }(3)/(8)((11)/(3)\text{ + 5)}`
`\text{= }(3)/(8)((11)/(3)\text{ + }(15)/(3)\text{) = }(3)/(8)(\frac{11\text{ + 15}}{3})`
`\text{ = }(3)/(8)((26)/(3))`
`\text{ = }(78)/(24)`
`\text{ = }(13)/(4)\text{ or 3 1/4}`

Therefore, Maria uses 3 1/4 cups of strawberries in making the salad.