Question

James has a sidewalk that runs through his flower garden. He needs to put more mulch in the flower garden. If one bag of mulch covers 4 square yards, how many bags of mulch will he need?

Answer 1

See Explanation

Explanation:

Given

The given proportion can be represented as:

`1\ bag = 4yd^2`

Required

The additional number of mulch needed

The question has incomplete details, as the amount of mulch he has applied and the area of the flower garden are not given.

So, I will make some assumptions to solve this question.

Let the area of his flower garden be x.

So, we have:

`1\ bag = 4yd^2`

`y = x\ yd^2`

Cross multiply

`4yd^2 * y = xyd^2 * 1\ bag`

Make y the subject

`y = (x\ yd^2 * 1\ bag)/(4yd^2)`

`y = (x* 1\ bag)/(4)`

`y = (x)/(4)\ bag` --- This represents the total amount of mulch required for the flower garden

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Assumptions

Assume that
`x = 16`,

So, we have:

`y = (x)/(4)\ bag`

`y = (16)/(4)`

`y = 4`

i.e 4 bags are needed.

Assume he has applied 2 bags already.

The number of bags needed to apply will be:

`y - 2`

`y - 2 = 4 - 2`

`y - 2 = 2`

2 more bags needed

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