Question

Alana bought some cans of paint and 1/2 of a liter of special paint additive formulated to reduce mildew. Before painting her house, she used all of the additive to put 1/8 of a liter of additive in each can. How many cans of paint did Alana buy?

Answer 1

Alana bought 4 cans of paint additive

Explanation:

Proportions

If a proportional amount of x is to be distributed between y elements, each one of them gets x/y portions.

For example, if we have 100 coins and distribute evenly between 20 boxes, each box will receive 100/20=5 coins.

Alana bought 1/2 of a liter of the special paint additive and evenly distributed it between an unknown number of cans, let's call it C. We also know each can received 1/8 of a liter of the additive. That is the proportion of the 1/2 liter of additive.

We can establish the following condition:

`\displaystyle (1/2)/(x)=(1)/(8)`

Solving for x:

`\displaystyle (1/2)/((1)/(8))=x`

Transform the division into a product:

`\displaystyle x=(1)/(2)\cdot(8)/(1)=4`

Alana bought 4 cans of paint additive