Question

Dog food selling for $0.50 per pound is to be mixed with a high protein blend selling for $1.50 per pound. How many pounds of the high protein blend are needed to produce a 50 pound mixture that sells for $1.25 per pound?

Answer 1

The number of high protein feeds needed is 37.5 pounds

Explanation:

Firstly we define variables. Let the number of pounds of dog food be d and the number of pounds of protein feeds be p.

We have 50 pounds in total, this means :

d + p = 50........(I)

The total cost here would be 50 * $1.25 since it’s $1.25 per pound: 1.25 * 50 = $62.5

Now, we multiply each feed by their cost to arrive at the total cost

This means that :

0.5d + 1.5p = 62.5.......(ii)

We can rewrite i as d =50 - p

We substitute this in ii

0.5(50-p) + 1.5p = 62.5

25 - 0.5p + 1.5p = 62.5

P= 62.5 -25 = 37.5 pounds