Question

Mike wants to make meatloaf. His recipe

uses a total of 5 pounds of meat.
If he uses a 3 to 1 ratio of beef to pork, how
much pork will he use? Enter your answer as a
mixed number in simplest terms.
Enter the correct answer.
000
DONE
Clear all
+
2

Answer 1

1 1/4 pounds.

Explanation:

The ratio of beef to pork is 3:1. What this means is that out of the 5 pounds of meat Mike will use for his meatloaf, 3 parts of it will be beef and 1 part will be pork, which gives us four parts total.

So the ratio of pork to total meat would be 1:4, or 1/4. Now we need to multiply 5 by 1/4 in order to get the amount of pork. Since multiplying by 1/4 is the same as dividing by 4, we can just divide to make things simpler.

`p = 5 * (1)/(4) \\ p = (5)/(4)`

The answer, expressed as an improper fraction, is 5/4. However, the question is asking for a mixed number, so we'll need to convert our answer. We just need to subtract from the numerator so that the fraction is equal to 4/4.

`(5)/(4) - (4)/(4) = (1)/(4)`

Since 4/4 is equivalent to 1, we'll just simplify this further.

`p = (4)/(4) + (1)/(4) \\ p = 1 (1)/(4)`